People

Day 26
Heaven in China. In other words, Hangzhou. We arrived to Hangzhou to a beautiful day. It was sunny out and it was actually quite warm; the temperature was a pleasant 8°C. I have seen many things in my life. I remember a good amount of my time in China 4 years ago. The sites always seem to stay the same. 4 years ago, I bet most of the buildings in Hangzhou were the same. The lake was probably cleaner and maybe the buildings were more colorful. The streets, the stones, the grass, the trees, and all of the things that most people love to take pictures of are all probably the same and will probably remain the same. It is difficult to be original when everyone is taking the same pictures of a certain temple or lake or statue or art piece. Don’t get me wrong, I love temples and art pieces. They represent the culture of China, the meaning and the history of China; but I love being original with my photos. While all of those things remain the same, there is one thing that is forever changing…the people. Most of the pictures that I will put up will be something “original” in my mind. There will occasionally be the sunset or the building, but many of my pictures will be of people. People are always changing. And these pictures will not be posed, nor forced. These are candid pictures at their best. One benefit of walking around with non-asian westerners is that everyone stares. Eyes are key, and I always have people’s eyes when walking with my friends. Now you might be asking yourself just how exactly I accomplish these pictures. I have a Nikon D40 SLR Digital camera, in other words I can’t see the picture I’m going to take without looking into the viewfinder. So most of these pictures are taken with the camera hanging around my neck and I am holding the camera to my chest on top of my camera bag (which is like a giant fanny pack, http://products.lowepro.com/catalog/Sling-bags,4.htm) and I direct the camera with my hands and judge the angle of the lens and focus with my fingers. I don’t mean to brag, but it’s an art, and I’m awesome at it.


The first day in Hangzhou we went to a few temples and a strip of some street vendors. There we went to the top of two temples and viewed Hangzhou and the West Lake and it was very beautiful. We stopped for some tea, and I had trouble tasting them, but it felt good and that’s what tea is supposed to do. After touring the temples, we went to some HOT POT!!!! Hot pot was of course delicious, but like most meals in china, I can always eat more. After hot pot, we all felt like doing some KTV. We found a nice KTV and sang our hearts out for a good 2 hours, and then they felt like going to a club called G plus. I tagged along and just enjoyed their company. We got back home around 2am and immediately hit the sack. We woke up this morning around 10 and headed to West Lake. Today was much colder because there was no sunlight and we were also right next to the water. It was a cool scene to see all the boats in the water and to see the rock formations, but all I saw were models for me to take pictures of. I enjoy taking pictures of the extremes. Younger and older. I know I sound like a creeper and a stalker, but I don’t mean to make fun of people, patronize or put anyone down with these photos. We walked around a couple of islands and then they went into Starbucks (yuck). We took the train back home and that’s we I am now. It was a long a tiring day and so it’s now time to hit the hay. Enjoy the photos and there will be more to come.