Pin It
I’ve been spending time around Anji (安吉) over the last 2 days for our company offsite, and it was time to go home. Since Nicemo offered to drive a few of us back to Hangzhou, I requested a detour to Liangzhu (良渚) so that we could tour the ruins of the ancient city, which are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The trip from
Banyan Tree Anji to
Liangzhu National Archeological Site Park (良渚国家考古遺址公园) took a little more than an hour. We rented a golf cart and Nicemo drove us around the park for our tour.
When I say a “park”, I really do mean it’s a park! The whole place is around 3 km sq and it would take a loooong time to walk around on foot. Not to mention that we wouldn’t want to be uncovered under the scorching sun.
Not having done much homework before coming here, I had no idea that the “ancient ruins” are actually mostly buried underground, and that the whole place – other than the moat surround the city and the ponds – are mostly covered by grass. There are hardly any structures left standing.
Our first stop was the
Southern City Wall Site (南城牆遺址), which was excavated by archeologists and we can see the different layers made of various materials.
The main attraction in the park is
Mount Mojiao (莫角山), an elevated area where the nobility used to live.
Big Mount Mojiao (莫角山), in particular, was the highest point of the city.
We did the short loop around and enjoyed the tranquility of the park, all while looking at the active rice fields, lotus ponds… etc. We were a little pressed for time today, but this is definitely a place I want to come back with Foursheets.
Nicemo announced that she was hungry, so I found us a place nearby to grab lunch.
Dong Da Fang (东大方) seemed to get decent reviews on Dianping (大众点评) so I took a chance. It was a little late by Chinese standards, so we found the restaurant mostly empty.
Stir-fried seasonal peas (时令鲜甜豆) – served with wolfberries (枸杞子), tiny round discs of Chinese preserved sausage, shrimp, and diced bamboo shoots.
It would seem they cooked this with a little Chinese wine. I love peas, and this whole combination just works for me, where the sweetness of the peas meets the savory profile of the sausage, the latter also coming with bite to go with the crunch of bamboo shoots.
Braised bamboo shoots from Mount Mogan (家烧莫干笋) – the flavors here were so familiar they just felt very comforting and homey.
Chef Fang’s braised pork belly (方师傅红烧肉) – I can never pass up braised pork belly, especially when I’m in this part of China.
They gave us a complimentary serving of steamed buns to go with our pork, which was nice.
Handmade fish balls (手工现做鱼圆) – these were very, very fluffy. Really happy I got to have some fluffy balls… since I didn’t get them at the place I really wanted to have some last month.
We moved to the next stop on our tour -
Liangzhu Museum (良渚博物院). This building exhibits artifacts which have been excavated from the Liangzhu site, and traces the history and culture of civilization around the Yangtze River delta beginning almost 7,000 years ago with Majiabin Culture (馬家濱文化), which eventually developed into the Liangzhu Culture (良渚文化) starting around 5,300 years ago.
We’ve got jade, ceramics, carvings… and things like a giant canoe carved from a single tree trunk. Shoot, they even transported a whole stone sarcophagus here from the original burial site!
That was a lot of eye-opening history for the day, but it was time to head back to modern civilization. Nicemo very kindly drove me into Hangzhou and dropped me off at the
Grand Hyatt Hangzhou, as I’ve decided to stay an extra night by West Lake (西湖). Time for me to get cleaned up after sweating like a pig all day, before she joins me for dinner…
No comments:
Post a Comment