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Hangzhou, the tea-shaped city
hangzhou continued from F1
what it means. Same goes for a glittery, floo- dlit store called Trendy Way. A mystery, as is the multi-story I Feel hotel. Kevin smacks his forehead apologetically. He could be a tourist just like us. “Last year,” he notes, “Hang- zhou already have the Burger King, the Pizza Heart.” But when we’re thinking about lunch, he suggests the nearby First Grade Restaurant instead. We ap- proach a building sheathed in mirrored panels. “Sounds like a school cafeteria,” someone gripes. “Looks like a casino,” adds someone else. Kevin He slaps his forehead. We settle for takeout and drive on. For a later meal, we park near
Hangzhou’s West Lake, a tur- quoise basin reflecting the lampposts and trees around its
who can’t be 20, we receive a bow. This is one of those mornings when guests are invited to the temple breakfast. Tables are shared and so are bowls of noo- dles, nuts and tofu. Cashews are in demand — everyone’s chop- sticks stretch for them, clashing like brittle swords when the bowl is nearly empty. There is one nut left. My chop-
sticks retreat. A monk captures the prize. Just then, I hear a plink, plink, plink. Conciliatory nuts from other monks are dropped onto my plate. I am sur- rounded by smiles.
It is time for an excursion to the country. On the main street of a tea village called Meijiawu, there are no English words on the signs. I am beginning to breathe. The air smells cleaner. Maybe it is all the Longjing tea leaves that are dried here and poured into wide, shallow bas- kets for display.
Where the shops along PETER MANDEL
Pang Ying pours for guests at Mrs. Pang’s Tea House in the Amanfayun Resort.
shore. “Louwailou Restaurant,” says our guide with a squint of satisfaction. “It has a history of 100 years.”
According to what we’ve been told, the local Zhejiang cuisine is known for fish. West Lake fish in sweet-and-sour sauce. West Lake fish in vinegar. West Lake fish with no sauce at all. A flier someone’s picked up has this to say: “You have not really un- derstood Hangzhou if you have not eaten shrimp and fried eel.” No one wants to risk the eel, but we bite into some shrimp fried with Longjing tea leaves. Longjing, or “Dragon Well,” a specialty of the region, is one of China’s most delicate green teas. Next comes a dish that arrives with an air of mystery. Has it been mailed to us from the kitchen? There is a wrapping that peels off. We pick at it. We taste. It is tender. “Beggar’s Chicken,” explains our waiter. It’s an entire bird baked inside a ball of newspaper and mud. After our lunch, some of us
feel that we need a rest. We take naps in our hotel, because the plan for tomorrow is to make an early pilgrimage to nearby Yong- fu Temple to watch the monks take part in daybreak prayers. In fact, when we arrive at the
village of Fayun Nong, it is still completely dark. We stagger up the temple hill in blackness, and it is not until an hour later, toward the end of the monks’ measured chanting, the thump- ing of a resonant drum, that a thin chip of dawn begins to show beyond the sanctuary door. No one says a word about our presence in the back of the hall. We are noticed, this is clear. But once we begin to lower our- selves when they do, and rise on cue, the service goes like clock- work. There is a bang on a gong. On our way out, from a monk
Hangzhou’s Hefang Street — the Wangxingji Fan Store, the Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors Store, and the Wanlong Ham Store, to name just three — had been busy with shoppers, here in Mei- jiawu, the sidewalks are quiet. Village roosters walk and peck in random patterns. The pavement is dusty. I head off for a stroll in the tea fields right at the edge of town. Tea plants, I decide, are tidy
objects. Round and puffy like the tails of poodles, they carpet the ground around Meijiawu as far as you can see. Beyond the rows of puffballs rise jagged hills that look as though they were inked in by an artist, one who has started to erase his work just slightly, using dabs of fog. Since it is spring, the tips of the tea branches are turning green. These are the shoots that are picked to make delicate Longjing tea. Kevin has in- formed me that a cup of the fin- est hand-picked Longjing can cost about $73. Once they’re dried in town, the fragile-look- ing leaves I’m passing will bring more than $1,000 per pound in Shanghai. To taste the tea, I head for
Mrs. Pang’s Tea House, a small, wood-beamed cottage on the grounds of the Amanfayun Re- sort in Fayun village, operated by Pang Ying. Ian White, the Amanfayun’s British-born gen- eral manager, says that his plan was to keep as authentic a tea- drinking experience as possible. “Mrs. Pang knows tea,” says White. “So she is in charge.” Examining me over horn- rimmed glasses, Pang begins her work. “You must wash the tea,” she says through an interpreter. “And you must rinse the pot.” Boiling water is poured. There is overflow as the tea and the pot are sluiced. Tides of tea, a cas- cade that bubbles, ebbs and flows. Mrs. Pang partially disap- pears in a cloud of steam. Is this some teahouse magic? There is a sudden scent of blossoms. Liq- uid — light as April — fills my cup. I take a sip. Mrs. Pang is watching. She is back now. All the steam has cleared.
I taste. It isn’t tea, exactly. Tea is strong. Longjing is like a taste of something growing. A blade of grass, some grains of rice, a
DETAILS
GETTING THERE Continental offers connecting codeshare flights with several Asian airlines from Washington Dulles to Hangzhou, with fares starting at around $2,000 round trip.
WHERE TO STAY Landison Plaza Hotel 333 Ti Yu Chang Rd. 011-86-571-8515-8888
www.landisonplazahotel.com.cn Luxurious and a relative bargain for this booming region. Rooms start at around $100.
Amanfayun 22 Fayun Nong 011-86-571-8732-9999
www.amanresorts.com The ultimate in rustic, ultra-low-key resorts. Worth a splurge for a night or two. Rooms start at $580.
WHERE TO EAT Louwailou 30 Gushan Rd. 011-86-571-8796-9023
www.louwailou.com.cn Has been serving up such Hangzhou delicacies as fried shrimp with Longjing tea leaves and Beggar’s Chicken for more than a century. Entrees $13-$29.
WHAT TO DO Yongfu Temple
On a hilltop in the village of Fayun Nong, a short walk from the Amanfayun resort and about a 20-minute drive from the center of Hangzhou. Founded by a monk from India in A.D. 362, the temple welcomes visitors who want to watch or quietly participate during daybreak prayers.
Mrs. Pang’s Tea House 22 Fayun Nong 011-86-571-8732-9999 A locally run business in a cottage on the little main street that snakes through the Amanfayun resort. A good place to sample some of the Hangzhou region’s quality teas including, of course, Longjing.
INFORMATION Chinese National Tourist Office
www.cnto.org/hangzhou.asp
— P.M. 0 MILES Shanghai CHINA Hangzhou 0 MILES 800
RUSSIA MONG.
Beijing CHINA INDIA JAPAN Detail Hong Kong
Pacific Ocean
LARIS KARKLIS/THE WASHINGTON POST petal in a cup.
I think of the Disney-castle gardens in Hangzhou. The City of Cartoon, the First Grade Res- taurant are out of mind. My head is full of farmers who grow tea and don’t want to leave the land.
I smile at Mrs. Pang. She pours again.
At last, when it comes to fami- ly growing, I understand.
travel@washpost.com
Mandel is a children’s book author in Providence, R.I., whose most recent book is “Bun, Onion, Burger” (Simon & Schuster).
Extend your stay! FREE!
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*Valid through December 19, 2010. Restrictions apply.
50
East China Sea
THE NAVIGATOR Christopher Elliott
The curious case of ‘tragedy tourism’ N
o one wants to be called a tragedy tourist. Not Van Badham, a London-based
playwright who spends her vaca- tions visiting such places as Ground Zero in New York and Nazi concentration camps in Germany. “I travel to learn, and witness, and share,” she said. “If it’s bad, I want to know how bad it is.” Any surprise, then, that the coast of Louisiana — site of the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history — is on her “to-do” list? “I will definitely make a point of getting over there when I’m in the U.S. next,” she told me. As tens of thousands of travel- ers cancel their beach vacations in the wake of the massive oil spill, a small number of tourists will swim against the tide. Too bad it’s just a small number. If ever there were a time to visit the Gulf Coast, it is now. Some will go to volunteer, al- though most of the organizations assisting with oil spill damage are requesting only trained vol- unteers, as noted in the Travel section last week. A few will be like Badham: curiosity-seekers who want to experience the after- math of a tragedy. And an unde- termined number will fall into both categories, which is to say that they want to help, but they also want a front-row seat to de- struction. Even the experts often can’t tell one from the other. Andrew Motiwalla, executive director of San Diego-based Global Leader- ship Adventures, which offers educational trips for teenagers, says that travelers often have sev- eral reasons for visiting an oil- soaked beach or a city laid waste by an earthquake. What’s impor- tant is how they behave once they arrive. “Like most forms of tourism,
whether it’s beneficial or not de- pends on how it’s conducted,” Motiwalla said. “We believe that
BED CHECK A little charmer in Rehoboth by Andrea Sachs
Over breakfast at the Be- witched B&B in Rehoboth Beach, Del., Chris Higgins was twitching his nose. The visitor from Phila- delphia was not fending off a sneeze. Per another guest’s re- quest, he was attempting to repli- cate the spell-casting tic from the popular 1960s TV show of the same name. “I can do my ears better,” said
Higgins as he snuffled his schnoz, looking more like a flu sufferer than the winsome witch Saman- tha. “I can probably twitch my nose during allergy season.” Wiggling one’s nostrils and humming the sitcom’s opening song are common activities at this themed property, part of a trio of lodgings under a single spell. (The Sea Witch Manor and Spa is a guesthouse inside an antiques shop, with all furnishings for sale; BEDazzled spotlights the Golden Age of Hollywood, with such rooms as the Clark Gable and the Bette Davis.) The B&B, a few blocks from the ocean, honors the popular sitcom with seven rooms named after the main characters and inspired by their eccentric- ities, onscreen and off. In the Aunt Clara room, for in- stance, doorknobs piled in a bas- ket and attached to the bedposts pay tribute to actress Marion Lorne’s real-life collection of en- tryway hardware. The Uncle Ar- thur room features a Peter Max- esque painting of box shapes that winks at actor Paul Lynde’s cen- tral spot in the game show “Holly- wood Squares.” Those who favor one Darrin over the other don’t have to compromise: You can choose between the Samantha and Darrin I (Dick York), and the Darrin II (Dick Sargent). If you’d rather be in the supporting cast, stay in the Abner and Gladys Kra- vitz room, which comes with bin- oculars so you can spy on your co- guests.
Growing up, I was partial to
Tabitha, the young daughter who had so much power at her perky nosetip. The junior witch didn’t get her own room, but that didn’t seem to offend Erin Murphy, the actress who played her as a child and visited the inn a few months back.
“She was really blown away, saying ‘There I am, there I am,’ ”
TRAVEL Call 800.266.2444 to plan your vacation.
wintergreenresort.com
city that has been flattened by a tsunami and not marvel at the devastation before putting on a pair of gloves to help clean up? I couldn’t do it. Neither can the folks who visit-
LUCI GUTIÉRREZ FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
travel to a disaster site can be done responsibly if tourists do not interfere with the recovery efforts.”
Where do tragedy tourists go?
The top destinations include sites of historical disasters, such as Naples, Italy (close to the an- cient Roman ruins of Pompeii, which was partially buried in a volcanic eruption in A.D. 79). Nazi concentration camps in Da- chau, Germany, and Auschwitz, Poland, are high on the list, ac- cording to Haisley Smith, a mar- keting director for Brownell, a luxury travel agency in Birming- ham, Ala.
But modern calamities are big
draws, too. They include Ground Zero in Manhattan, where the World Trade Center was reduced to rubble on Sept. 11, 2001; Rwan- da, which suffered a massive genocide in 1994 in which an es- timated 800,000 people were killed; and New Orleans, where visitors can see the aftermath of Katrina, probably the most de- structive hurricane in our na- tion’s history. “People don’t visit tragic desti-
nations or sites to gawk — or to view it the same way they would a horror film,” said Smith. “They see it as honoring the victims and educating younger generations.” I’d like to think so, too. But
really, does anyone believe that people are going to arrive in a
ed Chile after the mega-earth- quake in February. Liz Caskey, an American who operates wine tours in Santiago, said that many visitors arrived shortly afterward to assist with rebuilding. “Yes, people want to help, but also to assess everything firsthand,” she said. “Perhaps they were curi- ous.”
Or perhaps they’re just con-
trarians who want more from their vacations than gorging themselves on midnight buffets, roasting in the sun and drinking cheap margaritas. What’s wrong with that? Abso- lutely nothing. That’s what Shannon Lane, a
blogger who lives near Baton Rouge, La., thinks. She and her family lived through Katrina and she believes that what the oil-rav- aged gulf beaches need more than anything else are tourists. So she’s planning a vacation to the Gulf Coast this summer. “We aren’t visiting to see oil or
even volunteer for cleanup,” she said. “Our reason behind the un- planned Gulf Coast vacation is to support the communities that are being affected negatively by this event.” I think she’s right. Whether
you’re a tragedy tourist, a do- gooder or just someone who cares about the local economy, there’s no better time than now to plan a vacation to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Flori- da.
Go on, let them call you a trag- edy tourist. The real tragedy would be staying away.
Elliott is National Geographic Traveler magazine’s reader advocate. E-mail him at
celliott@ngs.org.
SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 2010
BEWITCHED B&B
Bewitched B&B in Rehoboth Beach has seven rooms themed on the sitcom.
DETAILS
Bewitched B&B 67 Lake Ave., Rehoboth Beach, Del. 866-732-9482
www.bewitchedbnb.com Rates, $155-$215 per night.
said co-owner Inez Conover, who bedecked the interior with photos of the cast and relevant trinkets. “In the Aunt Clara room, she said, ‘This is the doorknob she gave me.’ ” To find decor that fit her theme, Conover scoured eBay, souvenir shops and other depositories of old TV memories, scooping up Sa- mantha action toys, framed stills and encyclopedic books on the se- ries. Columbia Pictures donated promotional posters from the 2005 big-screen version of “Be- witched.” The blown-up images of an ersatz Samantha (Nicole Kid- man) and Darrin (Will Ferrell) hang above a bookcase stocked with a movie library covering all genres and eras. Much to Conov- er’s delight, the movie studio also granted her permission to use the copyrighted logo of Samantha fly- ing around on her broomstick, her blond hair perfectly coiffed. The friendly witch grinned out at me from the corner of Conover’s polo shirt.
“I loved how ‘Bewitched’ talked about diversity in a fun way. It threw it in people’s face,” said the 58-year-old, who put the proper- ties up for sale five months ago
but hopes that any new owners will preserve the shrine. “It was the most progressive TV show of the time. Sam and Darrin may have been one of the first couples to sleep in the same bed. And then you had Uncle Arthur, who was flaming.” For my overnight, I slept in the
Endora room, an homage to Sa- mantha’s slightly sinister mother, who deplored mortals. The wom- an behind the dark magic was Ag- nes Moorehead, a legendary lady who in her off-screen life adored Venice and Italian stylings. To re- flect her taste, Conover’s artist friend painted the room with an Old Masters touch, including marbled walls with a curlicue trim that echoes Endora’s tower of hair. An alabaster bust of a lass draped in pearls sat at the foot of the dresser, and a tapestry of ca- nals covered an entire wall. Be- hind the bed, a gold brocade fab- ric cascaded down with the flair of an Oscars gown. “This looks like Aunt Betty’s
house,” said the husband of a Bal- timore couple who had booked the room for the rest of the week- end. “She hasn’t redecorated since 1964.”
Plumped up on my pillows in bed, I gazed at a triptych of framed Endora-Agnes photos inches from my head. I wondered whether I’d have sweet dreams, or a nightmare about being turned into an artichoke. Don’t laugh. It almost happened once before: Season I, Episode 3.
sachsa@washpost.com
Editor: Joe Yonan • Deputy Editor: Zofia Smardz • Art Directors: Marty Barrick, Alla Dreyvitser • Staff Writers: Andrea Sachs, Nancy Trejos • Editorial Assistant: Becky Krystal • Travel Advertising: Joseph E.
Teipe Jr., 202-334-6250 • To respond to one of our articles: E-mail
travel@washpost.com, call 202-334-7750 or write us: Washington Post Travel section, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. • Manuscripts: Because of the volume of mail we receive, the Travel section cannot return or acknowledge unsolicited manuscripts, article proposals and photographs.
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