LinYin Temple and the Tea Museum

After my adventure at the school, Eryl and I went to the LinYin Temple situated in the tea hills.  The first thing that struck us when we got out of the taxi was the change in temperature.  It was at least three or four degrees cooler away from the concrete and in the shade of the many trees.

We first began by exploring the caves, and really wanted to stay there all day.  It was refreshingly cool(er, relatively speaking) and there was the odd breeze where we would linger just a little longer, feigning interest in some colouration in the rock.

Monks made carvings in the caves 2000 years ago and I think we've stumbled on the real reason they were here.  It was just too hot in Hangzhou.  

The surroundings were cool and calm.  Eryl pretended to do a lot or reading, but if you could really see, that sign is in the shade and  only in Mandarin.

The paths were very inviting and we began to wander.

We got just a little lost, but found signs of civilization, like this pagoda, which gave us hope that we would eventually make our way out. 

Once we eventually emerged from the paths, we made our way to the Temple, passing more relics on the way.

The air at the Temple was thick with incense as many people bought handfuls of sticks to burn.

This was one of the many burner thingys (for lack of a better word) where people would place their incense.

Once we had seen inside the Temple (we were not allowed to take pictures as it was a working Temple), we left as we were just too hot.

We found our taxi that had been waiting for us, and headed into what we thought was the Tea Museum.  Unfortunately, he took us to the tea village where little old ladies were sitting, waiting for some unsuspecting tourists, to entice them to have tea at their house.  Realising this was not what we wanted, we got the driver to phone the wonderful Jose at the hotel to have him tell the driver where we wanted to go.

The Tea Museum was the first place where we felt a sense of calm in China.  It was so peaceful and green.

The tea fields were right outside the door of the Museum.

The museum was great, but the fields were amazing to see as well. All this just 15 minutes from downtown Hangzhou.

We were so wiped from the heat after our little adventure that when we got back to the hotel we showered, read for awhile, and then made our way down to the buffet.  Whew!