Making Dumplings, Hiking and the Tian Zhu (Fa Xi) Temple

Making Chinese dumplings! Jian Jiao. 监交

Ayi makes the best dumplings! She use to have her own little business where she made Chinese dumplings. We helped and the family learned how to fill shells with filling. She was so happy that we loved them so much and she wanted to treat everyone to them. She said, if they're happy it makes me so happy! And boy were we happy! They were so good. We cook and fry them up and eat them with dumpling vinegar and soy sauce. 

Isn't he cute! He's playing an instrument called, er hu. 

I took Deann, Sophie and Shya across the street to buy some produce at the wet market. It's a fun little local community and local shopping right across the street from us. The wet market was something Deann just loved experiencing! She is a true Idaho-farm girl and knows her plants and crops and vegetables! She had a ball checking out all the different kinds of vegetables for sale and available here. The girls did too and they picked out vegetables for our stir fry and fried rice we ate for lunch that day. 

View at the highest point we hiked to where there's a view of the West Lake and tea farms.

Brian, Steve, Rachelle, Sophie, Callie and I went on the crazy stairs hike near the Six Harmonies Pagoda that evidently covers 132 flights of stairs and comes out at Tiger Springs. It was something Brian hasn't done before! I like to run it but hiking it is fun too. Especially with friends! I tried to tell them that there was a lot of stairs. Not sure if they listened because Sophie said, "Aunt Sarah! You didn't say there was going to be so many stairs!" haha! I pointed to a little pavilion on a ridge of a mountain and said we were going to it. And everyone said, "No. We can't possibly be going there. That's way too far away." I didn't say much more. After all, I could be wrong. haha! But of course that's where we went! It just looked really far away. It's maybe 2.5 miles of stairs all together. And beautiful of course! These guys came at the best time of year for sure!

Tiger Springs! Rachelle, Steve, Sophie, Callie, Sarah, Brain.

Tian Zhu Temple

This is my new favorite Buddhist temple! The Tian Zhu (Fa Xi) Temple, Hangzhou. I had never been here before! It's in a beautiful setting, there's hardly any people there and it's especially gorgeous this time of year! We went on March 27th. Everything is in bloom and it's really the prettiest time of year in Hangzhou.