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A Letter from Governor Hickenlooper
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1600 Wynkoop
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We've been working on our new home at 1600 Wynkoop. Here's what's happening now; we look forward to seeing you at the new International Wine Guild facility soon!
A little history:
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Barteldes Seed Warehouse, 1908
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Barteldes Seed Warehouse, 1916
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The building today.
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The entire 3rd floor is the Guild's.
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A Modern street entrance on Wynkoop.
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The lobby and elevators. . .
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The lobby and freight elevator inside the Guild's space.
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The office in back will be Carey's.
Hallway and elevator.
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Claude's office is on the left, faculty to the right.
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And here's the same view, only this time with drywall. If only all drywalling could go so fast.
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The 20-person Dionysis classroom.
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The room on the other side of this wall is the workroom.
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Workroom showing entry door and storage cabinets.
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Workroom and storage cabinets.
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View of hallway from workroom.
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Wine cellar with new opening for a glass wall.
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Sherrie's office to the left, wine cellar on the right.
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Open commons area with wine cellar on the left.
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View across common area showing classrooms and kitchen door.
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Elevage classroom before the walls are in place.
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The Elevage Classroom.
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I recently returned from a 3 week trip to Hangzhou, China (about 110 miles SW of Shanghai) where we are working with the Hangzhou Wine Culture Center to teach IWG courses and seminars in China. I was there from June 28 through July 18. I posted a daily blog on my trip, which you can still go and read.
I did a 'train-the-trainers" session and certified five new Guild instructors. They are shown in the picture, from left to right, is Joyce Wu, Sara Chen , me, Dr. Marcus Lim, Jane Soon and Heren Huang
They have been very busy and have already taught two Guild Certification Seminars since my return. The green jacket is their uniform as an instructor - Dr. Lim is an avid golfer - the green color matches the Masters jackets.
According to the Wall Street Journal, wondering how to recession proof a career is a concern for many people today. This is a result of the current state of the economy and the high unemployment rate in this country. Waiting for the economy to recover is one option - actively doing something to improve your 'marketability' and job skills is another, arguably more attractive, option. We couldn't agree more.
Enrolling in a continuing education program or course provides the best opportunity to learn the latest trends in a career field, along with improving your current employment skills. This is important regardless of trying to recession proof a job or not. Employers often retain employees who are aware of the latest industry trends, which facilitate increased productivity and improve the bottom line. Continuing education programs, like all of the Certification and CE programs offered by the Guild, that are designed to increase career skills are the path to job security in a recession or even during non-recession periods.
When people hear continuing education, they often immediately think of college. Pursuing a bachelor, master's, or other degree is not always the answer. Consider a certificate program or a single CE course designed to improve employment skills. For example, completing a wine certification program increases your value to an existing or potential employer - a job related certification may make the difference between whether you or another employee is being laid off.
A recessionary time is also a good time to prepare yourself for a career shift or to start a new business. In either case continuing education may open up a whole new set of opportunities for you. A lot of people have learned to use this to their advantage and turned it into an entrepreneurship, having started their own business and experienced more financial freedom than with their last employer.
If wine is a passion or avocation you would like to make your vocation we have technical and business courses to prepare you to change careers or start a new business.
Start winning the game of life. Create your own destiny - we can help.
Now is a good time to pre-register for the Fall Quarter that begins October 3rd, 2010. Intensive study courses begin Octoberv11th. Here are the upcoming Level I, Level II, LevelI II and Continuing Education professional courses.
Guild Certification Seminar - Level I Certification
The basic wine certification seminar is our professional introductory course of study designed for individuals who desire to learn about wine. The focus is to develop a basic knowledge of wine, wine evaluation, wine description and wine and food pairing. September 18-19, Denver CO
1-Week Intensive Study Advanced Wine Course - Level II Certification
Level III Program: Guild Wine Master
All Level III courses are open to anyone who has completed the Level I Seminar or Level II Course. Level III courses being taught during the Fall Quarter of 2010 are:
Level III Intensive Study Courses:
Continuing Education courses are open to anyone who has completed the Level I Certification Seminar. Continuing Education courses being taught during the Fall Quarter of 2010 are:
The most recent data on wine growing, making and consumption has recently been issued. This data is a five-year rolling average; the most recent data is for the 2004-2008 period. Data is released every other year. Most of this data, except where noted, is from the Beverage Institute as well as the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) of the US Department of the Treasury.
These wine statistics are carefully scrutinized by many in the trade. Market decisions are made based on this data and national pride is at stake.
Per Capita Consumption Overall, wine consumption is up 3.5% across the globe - from 6.255 billion gallons to 6.472 billion gallons per year. Per capita consumption does not take into account drinking age.
However, per capita consumption by country is always very interesting. Here are the top 10 countries (and their % change since the last report) - be prepared for a few surprises:
Where does the United States fit in? We are number 57, at 2.56 gallons per person (up 14.5%); we were #61. Worldwide average - 1.2 gallons per person (up 3.5%) for 223 reporting countries.
Total Wine Consumption This is the total consumption, per country, in millions of gallons of wine. While per capita consumption provides a clear picture of how much wine is being consumed each year by an individual, this category provides similar data for the entire country. Whereas size of country has no impact on the ranking for per capita consumption - in this category the total population of each country has a major impact. All 223 countries (territories, states, etc.) in the world are tracked.
The top 10 wine consuming countries represent 72% of total wine consumption. . Sometime in the next 5 years the US should become the number 2 consuming country in the world.
The United Kingdom is probably the most fascinating - it is #7 in consumption, yet only #58 in production (1.5 million gallons); that means the Brits import a staggering 99.5% of the wine they consume. (Of course, they have been importing at that level for the last 1000 years.)
Total Wine Production This is the total amount of wine produced by each reporting country, also in millions of gallons. This is the number whereby national pride is at stake.
Although consumption is up 3.5%, total production is down by 2.8%. The top 10 countries represent 82% of world production. Only 60 countries are tracked as wine producing countries.
France and Italy trading places is a surprise to many, and a concern to the French. Obviously, the Italians are happy. France has been the leading wine producing country for at least 50 years.
The European Union (EU), comprised of 27 countries with a population of a little over 550 million people, produces 70% of the worlds wine. The top three wine producers in the EU (Italy, France and Spain) represent 48% of the entire world's production. All of the New World and Nouveaux New World combined produce 30% of the world's wine. However, the top three New World countries (USA, Argentina and Australia) represent 19% of the world's total production.
Total Wine Exported This is a much more difficult set of data to find - I am using International Trade Centre data, in the UK, for 2008. The top 10 countries compromise 88% of total world exports.
Other interesting facts: Moldovia (#12 on the list of wine exporting countries), exports 29.6% of its production - the taxes from the wine exports provide 15% of the income of the country.
France and the United States are the two key net importers of wine, after the UK of course.
France produces 1,207 million gallons and exports 364 million - leaving 843 million gallons consumed in-country. The total consumption for France is 1,360 million gallons; leaving 38% being imported from other countries (mostly EU countries).
The United States produces 641 million gallons and exports 102 million gallons; leaving 539 million gallons of US wine consumed in the US. The total consumption of the United States is 762 million gallons; leaving 29.2% being imported from other countries, worldwide.
Hangzhou is famous for it’s silk market – it is over 1000 years old. Marco Polo bought silk there to send back to Venice to be sold throughout Medieval Italy.
The silk market is not much to look at, really. In fact, if you didn’t know what it was you could easily drive right past it. Picture 1 shows the entrance. It has the classic triple opening gate – with one wide center opening and a smaller opening on either side.
Once you pass through the gate you can see that the street, which is fairly wide for an old street, has small shops on either side of the street for 4 blocks. See picture 2. If you look at the picture the small rectangle of white light that the street is headed towards is the end of the market. The silk market is only one block wide. So this one street is the entire silk market.
The street is blocked to automobiles, but scooters, regular bicycles, and the classic three-wheel bicycle have access. The street was crowded with people going in and out of the shops looking for something silk – from material to every conceivable form of clothing (pajamas, dresses, suits, scarves, blouses, shirts, everything).
The red bicycle on the right hand side of picture two is one of the 10s of thousands of bicycles identical to this one provided by the City of Hangzhou for people to rent and ride. It costs 8 yuen (roughly - $1.15) a day to rent. There are stalls all over the city and you can rent it for the day or by the hour (first hour is free if you rent it for 2 or more hours), you just take to any of the city stalls to return it.
You see them everywhere. People use them for their daily transportation, or rent them in the parks, like West Lake, to drive around the park.
Each shop puts out manikins every day (the market is open from 8am to 10pm, seven days a week) showing what they have to sell. Picture 3 shows several shops. The shops are about 20’ x 20’ and some, but not most, are air-conditioned. However, the AC doesn’t help because the doors to every shop were open.
The manikins were ‘western’ not oriental. However, that day I was the only ‘westerner’ in the market.
I asked Dr. Lim if it was a Chinese tradition to have the entry door open to a business (even the hotel leaves it’s entry doors open all day long) and he said it was not a tradition, but if the doors were shut the shop would not be very ‘inviting’ and people might suspect it was closed.
I was amazed just how similar each store was, and was curious as to how they could all remain in business. Dr. Lim told me that they all do a huge internet business, all over the world, and that several shops, each showing different products, spread out in different parts of the market were often owned by one extended family. These families had owned a silk market concession for generations.
Picture 4 shows more shops, the one closest in this picture specializing in children’s clothes. Apparently you learned to judge which shop to go into by the manikins out front. There is a second space immediately behind each ‘showroom’, with access from a door in the in the showroom (often hidden from sight) where they store products to replenish their stock when someone buys something. Ms. Soon, the HWCC GM is in the foreground of this slide, on the right. I do not have any pictures standing directly in front of a shop because they did not want their shops photographed.
Note that the manikins are all about 4”-6” taller than the customers – and there are not very many blond Chinese. Even allowing for what their hair stylist could do.
In the last picture, picture 5, is a stature, in the middle of the market, showing two women hanging out silk to dry as they would have 500+ years ago. Immediately behind the statue is a shop selling bolts of cloth – except their bolts are round whereas US bolts are 1’ foot long so you can unroll cloth one foot at a time.
Although there were a great number of people in the silk market it was fairly quite – no merchants hawking their products, not like other markets.
The Hangzhou Wine Culture Center (HWCC) office and classroom is located on the 15th floor of the Tian Xing Building; my hotel room is on the 29th floor of the same building. The HWCC is a trade association that offers professional wine education to it’s membership, other members of the trade and the general public. Its membership includes importers, distributors and retail shops (wine shops and restaurants) as well as the general public.
(Note: The trade is organized quite differently in China as compared to the US or Europe. To an outsider it is very confusing and would require a many page blog to describe.)
As you get off the elevator, the HWCC is located in the southeast corner of the 15th floor. What you see as you get off the elevator and move a couple of steps towards the office is shown in picture 1. When you walk through the glass doors you can see down a long hall, about 40’ long, with the logo of the HWCC visible at the end of the hall. See picture 2.
There are two doors visible in this photo. One on the left and, a little further down the hall, one on the right. The door on the left leads to the classroom and the door on the right to the office area.
Before going into the classroom or office area, let me continue down the hall to the receptionist area and waiting room. Seated at the receptionist desk, in picture 3, are the administrative assistant (on the left) and receptionist (right). Neither speak much English. However, Dr. Lim worked with them for weeks before my visit to learn a few phrases in English.
The banner behind the receptionist desk describes the IWG program being offered by the HWCC. The banner is shown in more detail in picture 4.
To the right of the receptionist desk is a waiting room. About a 12’x20’ space. It was also used as a break room during classes and a place for staff to sit and talk – which happened almost every day during lunch.
Next to the waiting room, and to the right of what you can see in picture 5 is the VIP room. Picture 6 and 7 show the open door leading to the VIP room from the receptionist area and, in picture 7, inside the room itself. This is where the staff could meet with important guests. The door is usually kept closed. It is about a 12’x12’ room. The toilet is off the VIP room.
If I go back to the main entry hall, the classroom was on the left as you walk into the office. Picture 8 is the view of the classroom as you walk through the main entry door into the classroom. There are twelve individual student desks. The white bowls you can see on the desks are the spittoons. The IWG materials, including the history charts, can be seen along the back wall of the classroom. The room is about 30’ wide and 40’ long. There are only 12 seats in the classroom because that is, by custom, the number of seats in a college classroom.
Picture 9 shows the instructor desk. The ‘white board’ against the wall is glass that has been etched (or sandblasted) on the backside. The glass works quite well when you write on it with a dry erase marker. A screen lowers from the ceiling to show slides. They use a digital projector quite similar to the ones we use in Denver.
Picture 10 is a close-up of the IWG notebooks at the back of the classroom.
Going back out to the entry hall, the door on the right as you enter the office leads to the office area. Picture 11 was taken just inside that door. There are three private offices and six offices in an open-office layout in this room. The door to Dr. Lim’s office can be seen in this picture, the door to Ms. Soon’s office can barely be seen on the left side of the picture. To the left of Ms. Soon’s office is Ms. Wu’s office – the marketing manager.
Picture 12 is another view fo the open office area. The desk closest to the camera was reserved for me while I was there.
Picture 13 shows Dr. Lim’s office and picture 14 the view out his office window. You can see the farmland mixed in with the urban growth. The building with the blue roof is a high school.
On our day off yesterday we visited the Gaoshiqi’s Villa, which is also called the Xixi Villa. On our way to the villa we stopped at a real Chinese fast-food restaurant. Picture 1 shows the lunch we had.
The lunch was a bowl with rice, cabbage and spicy pork; the large bowl in the foreground. The pork was actually seasoned with a lot of cinnamon and not ‘spicy’ as most of us use the term. The three small bowls in the center were peanut sorbet (furthest away), peanut soup (left) and black rice (right). They were dessert.
The bread you can see in the picture, to the left and in the background, comes with a story. It is called ‘minister’s’ bread. If you remember the story about the general trying to save the city of Hangzhou during the Song Dynasty (see the Song Dynasty Opera blog), and the fact that the general (and the Emperor) were betrayed by a minister. Well, it seems that the minister and his wife were captured by the people after the fall of the city (and Empire), tried for treason and executed.
The wife was convicted of treason as well. The way they were executed was to be tied tightly together and then boiled in oil! So, this bread is divisible into two pieces (you can see the indentation for where they split apart in the photograph), and it is deep fat fried. The two pieces represent the minister and his wife. This dish has been served for almost 900 years. Obviously the Chinese have long memories.
The bread is fairly bland, it is served with a savory (not sweet) fruit sauce (the small dish located between the bread and the peanut soup in the picture). They had not told me the story about the minister’s bread until we had some to eat.
Thirty minutes for lunch and then back to the car and off to the villa.
This ‘house’ was built between 1657 and 1664. It is a classic example of architecture from the Qing (pronounced Ching) Dynasty. The villa is really a compound that consists of a series of separate buildings of which only a few still remain.
The villa was constructed on a wetlands and uses the river and water features as an integral part of the overall impression provided by the estate. The wetlands were formed as the river snaked back and forth across the plains creating a series of tightly formed horseshoes (‘U’s in the river). This is an ancient lazy, slow moving, tributary of the river that runs through Hangzhou.
Originally the estate was out in the country, but it is now adjacent to the city of Hangzhou on the extreme west side of the city, about a 45 minute drive due west from the hotel, which is on the east side of the city. It is only about 3 miles from West Lake. The estate and thousands of acres of the land around it are all now a National Wetlands Park, the only wetlands in an urban area in China.
Only a small part of the estate has survived – some of the public buildings and a couple of the gardens associated with those buildings.
The true story about the person who built the estate is interesting. It seems that Gaoshiqi (or Xixi) was a very learned man who could never pass the exams to become a minister for the country, and so had moved out to this ‘country estate’ to live his life in peaceful surroundings. In many ways his estate mirrored the West Lake, on a much smaller scale.
The reason he could never pass the exams is because the Qing Dynasty Emperor, and all of his senior ministers, were Manchu (Manchurian), not Han. Therefore, no Han was allowed to pass the exams and Gaoshiqi was Han.
In 1664, while on a patrol of Southern China to inspect the country, the Emperor visited the estate. The Emperor became entranced with the beauty of the estate as well as the character and honesty of Gaoshiqi. During his visit the Emperor named one of the buildings – the ‘Bamboo Window’ (building) and arranged for Gaoshiqi to retake the exams under the direct supervision of the Minister of Education – a private exam. He passed that exam and would eventually become the Emperor’s most trusted Senior Minister.
Becoming a minister meant that Gaoshiqi would have to move to Beijing, near the Forbidden City, and only be able to visit his country estate on the rare occasion of a ‘vacation’ from Beijing. However, the Emperor would accompany Gaoshiqi on several subsequent visits to the estate.
Like all Chinese estates, this one is a grouping of buildings not a single ‘house.’ For example, buildings might include a ‘greeting room’, one for dining, one for afternoon naps, and so forth. Each building functioned just as a individual room in a modern house would function.
Groups of rooms would form a compound surrounded by walls and several compounds formed the entire estate. This would also include very private compounds that guests never saw. Having many individual buildings, and several walled compounds, would mean if someone attacked the villa they would have a very small chance of getting to the owner unless there was a traitor on the inside that could tell them exactly which building, in which compound, he was when they attacked.
Picture 2 is the ceremonial entrance to the estate. This would be the gate where Gaoshiqi would have greeted the Emperor on his arrival. There is a path you can see on the other side of the gate that actually leads to the entrance to the villa.
The entrance to the villa is a smaller, more discrete, stone gate leading to a path through a bamboo grove. The bamboo walls of the path are shown in picture 3.
The bamboo are on both sides of the walkway and keep you from seeing anything of the estate until you are practically at the front door; which is seen in picture 4.
Immediately behind this door can be found an entrance garden and the first building – the ‘first greeting building’, shown in picture 5.
There are many interesting things to see, some of them quite remarkable – such as the Chinese version of a Bonsai tree shown in picture 6, which is in a passage way between the first greeting building and the building behind it. 
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Servants would take the passage ways, the guests would enter the building, walk through it and exit through another set of doors opposite the entry doors.
There are a number of buildings in this first compound that are similar in design and shape to the one in picture 5. As you move through several of them you reach the Bamboo Window building, which would be where the minister would actually greet visitors, onto a ‘back deck’ that opens up to the view seen in Pictures 7 and 8.
If you walk along the path to the bridge shown in picture 7 and look back to the Bamboo Window building you can see the entire Bamboo Window building, this is picture 9.
Let me spend a minute and explain the concept of naming buildings in China. On an estate the owner would name, or have his close friends and advisors be given the honor of naming, each building. If you were lucky your ‘boss’ would name a building. Having the Emperor name a building (whom you could never presume to ask to name a building) would indicate a very important person of the highest status. It was quite rare for the Emperor to name a building on someone’s estate.
As you continue on down the path you can see another group of buildings and another pond that is separate, but adjacent, to the pond beside the Bamboo Window building. See picture 10. You can see several lotus in bloom in this picture
Finally, on the opposite side of the ‘Bamboo Window’ building is another small public-private garden. A public-private garden would be one for very special guests; it was in the public compound but a private garden. This is shown in picture 11.
The large rock in the center of the picture is called the ‘heart of the river’. It is a large rock found in the river that was formed by the currents of the river over thousands of years – there are 4 or 5 similar rocks, but none this large, around the estate.
It was a beautiful estate, with remarkable gardens.
Final exams for the Advanced Wine Course occurred today. Everyone passed. Overall, I would say that the students being trained to be Guild instructors to teach in China have the same skill level as instructors in the US. No more, no less. The exception would be Dr. Lim, who has more than 15 years experience teaching at the university level.
It has been interesting finding everything needed to teach Guild professional courses in China. INAO glasses, carts, tools, 3-ring binders, even printers. Everything. We have had 12 years to develop materials – they will have done it, to teach 3 Guild courses, in 5 months and another 6 courses in another 6 months, after I come back in December. Plus the added problem of translation into Mandarin. Although there are other programs available in China, we will be the only one where the materials and exams are in Chinese (Mandarin).
They are not finished yet. I am teaching the Certified Wine Instructor (CWI) course as the last course before I head home. It starts tomorrow and runs for 4 days.
We will have a big graduation dinner, for the faculty and staff, at the end of the CWI course, and will present diplomas at that time. The tailor is coming to get measurements for the green jackets tomorrow so they will, hopefully, be ready in time for the graduation dinner.
We actually finished the Sommelier Practical Exam early, by about 3:30 pm, so Dr. Lim, Ms. Soon and I went to a market on our way to dinner. (They decided to have exams in the afternoon rather than the morning.)
I have been to two ‘markets’ in Hangzhou now, so this gives me the opportunity to compare ‘tradition’ and ‘new’ markets. The traditional market is somewhat similar to markets I have been to in Europe, particularly an indoor market in Florence.
You arrive at the tradition market (which is right around the corner from the seafood restaurant we ate dinner at a few nights ago and are going to again tonight) by going down an alley filled with people selling food and other items. These street vendors, shown in Picture 0526/1, are the ‘black market.’ Apparently you are not suppose to sell food on the street – only in the markets.
Looking at the quality of some of the food I saw being sold – you would not want to buy anything from the street vendors.
You enter the market by going through a passageway and turnstile about midway down this alley. I am sure the market was marked in some way but I did not see a sign for it. Inside are over 100 stalls with individuals selling every grocery item you might be interested in. They are grouped by product: one section of the market was for live fish, one for dead fish, one for vegetables and fruits, one for eggs, one for pork, and one for poultry. There was also a spice market – with one vendor. Beef and lamb was not sold in this market. Picture 0523/2 is what you see as you enter the market.
There might be twenty vendors for one group of products, or just a couple. Apparently, the stalls are ‘owned’ by families. Some families own several stalls and might sell meats and produce. My entering the market created quite a sensation – apparently I was the first ‘westerner’ to every enter this market. The market manager, as well as several vendors told us this as we walked around looking at things.
They were not real excited about me taking pictures – so I used my iPhone; which does not have a flash like my digital camera and is therefore less obtrusive. We just walked along the walls, not through the center of the market. You have to pay attention – electric motor scooters are driving up and down the isles picking up orders for deliver, or delivering fresh products to the stalls. They drive like it’s the Indy 500.
Our first stop was the stalls for live fish; they ran down one side of the building. There must have been 20 stalls, all showing fish in small red tubs. Unfortunately, the lighting made it almost impossible to take photographs of the fish in the tubs because the light reflected off the surface directly into the camera.
However, I was able to get one clear picture, picture 0508/3 are turtles, cleaned and gutted, ready to be taken home and steamed for dinner.
You can see some of the red tubs used for fish in the foreground and background of this picture. Again, no prices are listed; you haggle with the vendor over price.
Next we walked by the fruit and vegetable section of the store; picture 0510/4.
You can see the small stalls in the picture – each about 10’ long. Some families owned several stalls, others just one. Picture 0511/5 shows a bigger stall that specialized in all kinds of melons. The watermelons looked good.
As we continued on, we next went by a small group of stalls – only 4 – that specialized in already cleaned and gutted fish, crustacean, octopi and jellyfish. Picture 0513/6 shows one of these stalls.
This was not an air-conditioned space, and it was summer, yet there was no fish smells, or any smells for that matter. They really did bring in fresh fish every day, or any meat, vegetable or produce.
By this point in our journey through the market, we were being followed by a group of small children, but every time I turned around to take a picture of them they scattered.
We walked through a door into a separate room where the pork vendors sold their goods. Again, several stalls, with every possible cut (and a few you have never seen before) of pork. See picture 0518/7.
Each vendor, as we walked by, would hold up a nice cut of pork to tempt us to purchase it; including heads, feet, legs, everything. There were, literally, startled expressions when they realized I was a ‘westerner’ walking through the market.
We walked out of that room and down a passageway along the back of the vegetable stands to another, smaller room, where you purchased poultry.
This is shown in pictures 0520/8 and 0531/9. Poultry is sold alive, like the ‘better’ fish. When you purchase one they will de-feather, gut and dress it on the spot for you to take home. Sorry, no pictures of that process.
The last stall we went by on our way out of the market was the spice stall, picture 0524/10.
Lots of loud voices hawking their products, trying to out yell each other, was what you heard entering or leaving the market. Tomorrow I will send pictures of a ‘new’ market.
We decided to take one of the small ‘human-powered’ boats around the outer lake and the islands. It would give us a better chance to see some of the ancient pagodas and more of the lovers causeway. We could also see, close up, the three ancient stones to hold the monster (dragon) in the lake.
Our boat driver was a little melancholy – we were his last group of customers because by Chinese law he had to retire from being a boat driver AT AGE 50. (Sometimes interesting stories happen by accident. It was random choice that we picked this particular boat.)
His son was inheriting his job. He had been a boat driver for 28 years and inherited the boat and job from his father. Picture 1 shows the boat, boat driver (in the white shirt), his son (in the blue shirt seated on the boat) and the weeping willows. He had just returned from taking his son on a practice trip around the lake. The son stayed on shore when we went for a ride.
You can see the rocks he is standing on, the entire shoreline of the lake and every causeway is edged with rocks like these to keep the shore from eroding. Rocks cover the entire bottom of the lake as well, forming a very stable lakebed.
He used a single oar to row and steer the boat. He told us that most people would just go around in circles if they tried to row the boat with one oar because it took a great deal of skill to row and steer the boat, at the same time, with a single oar.
The first thing he did was pour us hot green tea. We drank green tea throughout the entire boat ride.
We passed by one of the six bridges that are evenly spaced along the entire length of the lover’s causeway. See Picture 2. These bridges allow boats to go to different parts of the ‘private’ lake. You can glimpse more lotus plants through the arch of the bridge.
He told us that the ancient tradition was to walk with your wife on the causeway in the day and your lover at night. He also added that it could be the wife with a lover, not necessarily the husband. But it was from this (ancient?) tradition that the causeway got its name – lovers causeway.
The arch of these bridges is a classic Chinese design. Most ‘westerners’ (their term for any non-Asian foreigner) are familiar with a Roman arch – which is an arch equal to exactly half of a circle. This arch goes beyond the halfway point. The concrete ‘handrail’ was added in the 20th century, the rest of the arch is over a thousand years old.
The lovers causeway is very wide – about 50’ and each bridge is about 25-30’ wide. Most of the other causeways were about half this wide. In the private lake they were even narrower – about 10’ wide.
Moving out into the lake we could see the three islands, the white snake pagoda (not it's real name - but what everybody called it) and the three stones to hold the monster in the lake. Looking back towards the shore you could see that there were many small pagodas on the surrounding mountains; placed there to view the lake from a distance.
Picture 3 shows a small pagoda off in the distance and a boat identical to the one we are in, in the foreground of the picture. You can see the boat driver using the single oar to row and steer simultaneously. The line of bright green trees between the lake and the ‘mountain’ is the lovers causeway.
The white snake pagoda can be seen in picture 4. This is the pagoda that keeps the white snake from seeking out a prince, as told in the Song Dynasty Opera. It has been ‘holding down’ the white snake for over a thousand years, and keeps her from swimming around the lake, looking for another prince.
Originally constructed over a thousand years ago, the pagoda has collapsed three times – twice due to earthquakes and once due to fire. There is some question among the locals as to whether or not the pagoda, after these disasters, is still holding the white snake down.
If you remember from my blog on the Song Dynasty Opera, one of the scenes of the opera was the human form of the white snake, with her best friend the green snake, meeting her prince charming on the broken bridge – the actual bridge is shown in picture 5.
The bridge has never been ‘broken’ it is just that snow covers the top of the bridge in winter making it look like two unconnected arches. The myth of the white snake and the prince has been important to the history and culture of Hangzhou for over a thousand years.
Near the white snake pagoda, are a group of three carved stones sitting out in the outer lake, fairly close to the north shore. Picture 6 shows the pagoda and in the lower left-hand corner of the picture is one of the three carved stones.
A close-up view of one of these stones is shown in picture 7.
On the evening of the August 15 full-moon festival, also called the festival of 32 moons, the small upper openings of each of the three carved stones are filled with candles, with reflectors behind each candle and a paper ‘window’ across each opening.
Five candles make five reflections on the lake, so there are ten of the 32 ‘moons.’ There are three stones – so the total for all three stones is 30 moons. The real moon and its reflection make the last 2 – all together: 32 moons.
The tradition is that the stones rest on top of the lake monster keeping it from escaping from the lake. They must be doing a good job because apparently no one has seen the lake monster in the past eleven hundred years.
The stones serve another purpose as well. They are indicators of the depth of the water in the lake. If the water begins to rise on the stones it is an early warning that there might be flooding in Hangzhou. They have served this purpose since 950 AD when they were first constructed.
Think for a minute how good the Chinese engineering was at the time – these stone carvings were constructed and put in place before the lake was filled. They have a precisely located water line and various flood lines before any water was put in the lake.
The three islands in the middle of the outer lake were built up out of the material removed to form the lakes. This is also true for all of the causeways, and there are lots of causeways, as well as other, smaller, islands. Two of the islands, with the city in the background, can be seen in picture 8.
The lakes range from 6’ to 16’ in depth. The shorelines quickly drop off to about 6’ in depth once you are about 3’ from shore and the center of the lake is about 16’ deep. A thousand years ago it would have taken a great number of laborers years to scrape out the dirt and line the lakebed with rocks. Everything was constructed by hand.
The lake draws its water from the Qiantang River and the flow of the river is such that water in the lake is completely replace every 32 days via underground pipes – also built in 950 AD. I will say that there are no dead fish or other odors in the lake. Not even gasoline or oil smells – only human-powered and electric boats are allowed on the lake.
There are no dead fish smells because there are no fish, to speak of, left in the lake. It was fished out many years ago. However, there is a famous restaurant I was told about located on the shore of the lake that has been open for over one hundred years and boasts that it only serves West Lake fish. They bring fish in from all around Hangzhou and put them in a holding pond in the lake for a couple of days. So ‘officially’ they are all West Lake fish.
The Qiantang River runs beside, and through, Hangzhou and connects to the Yellow River. You can see the river from my hotel room. It is considered a ‘small’ river – because it is not very long. It is quite broad, maybe as much as 800 to 1200 feet wide as it flows through Hangzhou.
I took a picture of the skyline of Hangzhou from the center of the outer lake. This is shown in picture 9.
There is nothing remarkable about this picture; in fact, it is difficult to make out all of the buildings because they are so small. However, there is one amazing fact – none of these modern buildings existed prior to 1985. It is expected that Hangzhou will grow from its current population of 6.5 million to over 9 million in the NEXT 5 YEARS. There is an enormous amount of construction occuring all over the city.
There are many bridges on the lake. One of the ‘ancient’ bridges is very small. It is shown in picture 10.
It is a ‘new’ ancient bridge because it is only 900 years old. Apparently that new-ancient explanation makes sense in Chinese. The causeway to the bridge, as well as the bridge itself, is only about 4’ wide. It is located next to the ‘singing willows lane,’ our last attraction to visit on West Lake.
We walked along the ‘singing willows lane’ for about 200 yards. It is shown in picture 11.
This is a beautiful stone walkway running along the East (city) side of the West Lake. There are willows on both sides of the path, with new ones planted every year. Millions of crickets live in the trees and they are constantly chirping – ‘singing.’ They did make an incredible sound. I won’t say it was peaceful, but it was pleasant, and considerably louder than expected.
The singing willows lane led us past our rest place to get a small snack and get out of the heat – an Häagen-Dazs ice cream shop. It has been in Hangzhou for about 10 years. However, it was not like any Häagen-Dazs I have ever seen. It was a sit-down restaurant complete with waitress and menus. Häagen-Dazs is considered a very ‘up-scale’ dining experience.
The entrance to the Häagen-Dazs, shown in picture 12, looks like your average H-D, so does the counter right inside the entrance. However, if you make a right turn once you enter, a hostess in the dining room can seat you. The dining room is shown in picture 13. It is an all glass room – including three walls and the ceiling. I would not want to pay the air conditioning bill for that room.
You can see one of the waitresses standing in the middle of the picture – wearing the red outfit with a silk scarf and red hat.
They served ice cream drinks like I have never seen before as well. The one I order ‘Green Tea Fantasy’ is shown in picture 14.
The glass was about 14” tall. The total cost for three ice cream treats - $45! The same price we paid for a 7-course seafood dinner for 3.
If you are wondering what restaurant was next door to Häagen-Dazs it is shown in picture 15. You can just make out the sign through the trees.
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