"The City of Heaven" - Marco Polo

Is pasta Chinese or noodles Italian? Or the other way around? Or, maybe, the same thing?



I just wanted to share with you this time, a little bit about where we are in China. I have to tell you this, I was not expecting a big city or anything like it so it has definitely helped out a bit. The culture shock is something unavoidable, there is no way to get around it in terms of language and some other details. Here, they will stare at you in the same way as if you where eating dinner at Graziano's in Coral Gables and Harrison Ford would just walk in. I just realized how much I miss my favorite place; a nice "vacío" with a bottle of Muga Reserva (Rioja) or a nice bottle of Luigi Bosca Malbec (Mendoza), am I hungry know! They don't get much of the Western action around here and I really appreciate that from them. To have the integrity that this culture have, to have the idiosyncrasy that they have is something I continuously think about.



Another funny thing that happened yesterday. I went out with Pedro our friend from Spain and Mike from California, over to West Lake (you will read about West Lake below) to grab a couple of beers, only for a little while; to go out and breathe and see something different. When we got the check to pay for our tab, I pulled out my wallet, opened it up and gave him my Visa credit card. Let me tell you this: if I would've taken a machine gun instead, the reaction would've not been as much as by pulling my credit card out! It was as if I insulted him or something, but his reaction was so funny I could not stop laughing. And to further keep the joke going I said "no Visa, fine no problem, here's my American Express, enjoy" and the poor guy kept on waving both hands saying "no, no, no, no". The whole thing was very funny and so we had a couple of laughs; no harm done.



Well, anyways, here's a brief description of Hangzhou, the city we are in China so you get to know a little bit more about this far, far, far, far away place:



Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang province and its political, economic and cultural center. With its famous natural beauty and cultural heritages, Hangzhou is one of China's most important tourist venues. The City, the southern terminus of the Grand Canal, is located on the lower reaches of the Qiantang River in southeast China, a superior position in the Yangtze Delta and only 180 kilometers from Shanghai. Hangzhou has a subtropical monsoon type climate with four quite distinct seasons. However, it is neither too hot in summer nor too cold in winter making it a year round destination.


The West Lake is undoubtedly the most renowned feature of Hangzhou, noted for the scenic beauty that blends naturally with many famous historical and cultural sites. In this scenic area, Solitary Hill, the Mausoleum of General Yue Fei, the Six Harmonies Pagoda and the Ling Yin Temple are probably the most frequently visited attractions. The "Ten West Lake Prospects" have been specially selected to give the visitor outstanding views of the lake, mountains and monuments. Also, this is the place we go to most for bars and restaurants. Actually, the major hotels are located around West lake in the kinds of Hyatt, Shangri-La and Sofitel. This Saturday we are going to the Hyatt for brunch as it is supposed to be the best around.





There's a Chinese saying that goes "shang you tian tang, xia you su hang" - up there is heaven, down here is Suzhou and Hangzhou. The first Westerner to visit Hangzhou, Marco Polo, marveled at its beauty. At the end of the 13Th century, he described Hangzhou as "the City of Heaven, the most beautiful and magnificent in the world."
Today, tourists from around the world as well as many expatriates based in Shanghai looking to escape for the weekend flock to the capital of Zhejiang to drink in its beauty, making it one of China's busiest resorts.



Legend has it that a golden dragon and jade phoenix once found a precious jewel in the mountains. The highest goddess noticed this jewel and had it stolen from the dragon and phoenix. She kept the jewel hidden until her birthday, who she unveiled it at her birthday party. Once the jewel was exposed for all to see, the golden dragon and jade phoenix attacked heaven to claim the jewel, but in the process, the jewel fell down to earth, to the spot where West Lake is.



So, enough of history and legends. Here I posted a couple of pictures taken from any given day at the hospital. The first picture is about Marujita in her standing therapy where she is strapped into that bed while horizontally and then is brought up to an almost vertical position. This is basically to shift from an always horizontal position as she does not walk yet.









The following in picture describes what this culture has already done to my wife. I guess I don't need further description for this picture...

This is just fooling around with her, a couple of "cuernos" that Pedro bought for the kids around while we where at West Lake. As you might have noticed, she's everything but happy with it!

So she just had her fourth injection, three to go and we fly back! That will happen next Monday, Friday and Wednesday of the following week. After that, we go back on June 12TH. She was better sedated this time so she came out fine. She fell asleep after she came out, but she didn't seem to be in any kind of pain; I guess we will wait for tonight to see how she behaves.

Today I went to the RT Market (the local KMart) in order to by some green tea, real green tea. To my surprise, a simple bag of good green tea leafs (about the size of a grounded coffee bag) costs RMB100 which is about $17. I mean, this is locally grown (actually in Hangzhou) green tea and it's expensive as a bottle of vodka! It must be good; I'm hoping it's going to relieve stress, burn fat, speed up my metabolism and get rid of all of my bad cholesterol, otherwise it's just an expensive tea.

So I leave you with that bit of history about Hangzhou and that very nice picture of Alejandra's new acquired taste for "cholas a la china".

Love you all, unconditionally, always and forever.

Tuto .38