It was drizzing all day in Hangzhou. We were wandering around sightseeing when we came across a statue of a famous local resident. Rainer struck a pose with the statue holding its beard in his hand. Suddenly, we began to hear shrills in rapid fire Chinese from a very old woman. At first, we had no idea what she was saying and who she was saying it to. Eventually, we realized that she was screaming at us. According to Matthew's translations, she kept saying "stupid and brainless". She was making quite a scene. People gather at a drop of a hat in China and this tirade drew many people. Her husband kept trying to stop her but to no avail. Obviously, we could only do one thing, laugh hysterically. This only fueled the fire. We weren't doing it to be mean, we thought the whole situation was so absurd. Apparently, she was upset that Rainer disrespected the local hero by pulling his beard. The funny thing was, everyone that posed with this statue, pulled his beard as well. Apparently, it's because we were foreigners that it was disrespectful. Now you understand why we were laughing. We hopped a ferry that took us to three small islands on the lake. Unfortunately, the weather was not ideal for picture taking but it was still beautiful to see. We headed back to the city to search for lunch and we found Crystal Jade. It's one of our favorite restaurants in Shanghai and we were relieved to see a branch in Hangzhou. Beijing duck, spicy chicken, tofu and other dishes were inhaled at lightening speed. One thing we haven't lost being in China is our appetites. All our fans can attest to that.
