A white house in Hangzhou

By Annie Wei

Unlike in other parts of Hangzhou, tourists are few and traffic is light at Baileqiao, where Beijing photographer Chen Yan, her friend Cai Yan, a graphic designer in Guangzhou, and two others built their dream house: a six-room boutique hotel called Uhouse.

“Areas like Baileqiao are hard to find in Hangzhou,” Chen said.

The area is striking for its mix of scenery: tall ancient trees along with mountains constantly shrouded in fog along with rivers and temples.

In the morning, the leaves are sprinkled with dew, birds sing in the trees and water laps against the shores as it flows under bridges.

“The water is so clean that local residents make tea with it,” said Wei Chao, a Hangzhou resident who runs the apparel brand Choc (ilovechoc.cn).

Wei stayed in Uhouse and praised its design for matching its surroundings.

Uhouse is a distinguished white building with three floors, big windows, wood frames and a terrace floor. It is home to, among other things, two large poodles.

Wei checked into a room on the third-floor that cost 388 yuan per night. “I was impressed by its half-wood and half-concrete construction,” he said, “as well as many details such as designer ceramic wares, quality furniture and utilities.”

Although the price was a bit higher than other inns and youth hostels, Uhouse is more affordable than five-star hotels. For example, Amanfayun, 15 minutes away by car, charges 4,225 yuan per night.

“It takes less than 20 yuan to take a cab from Uhouse to West Lake,” Chen said. Hangzhou, after all, isn’t all that big.

Two girls

A graduate of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Chen works as a freelance photographer, primarily with Elle Décor.

The hotel business was never in her mind before she spent a week in Baileqiao with her close friend Cai Yan.

The two met in 2003, and though they had few chances to hang out because they lived 2,300 kilometers apart, they felt they had a tight friendship.

Flavors of Hangzhou

Stewed pigtail, 58 yuan/Photos by Zhang Huan

By He Jianwei

Marco Polo called Hangzhou, “The city of heaven, the most magnificent in all the world.” But in addition to the beautiful scenery around West Lake, Hangzhou also enjoys the reputation of having fine food that’s crisp, tender, light and sweet.

Tongle Jiangnan Restaurant, which opened on August 16 at Shuangjing on East Third Ring Road, is bringing a new style of Hangzhou food to Beijing, something “not as sweet as the traditional because northerners aren’t accustomed to sweet dishes,” said restaurant manager Wen Juhua.

A couple of traditional dishes that are not on the menu are Dongpo’s pork and West Lake vinegar fish. Both dishes have long histories; for instance, Dongpo’s pork comes from Song Dynasty (960-1279) poet Su Dongpo, who made an improvement in the cooking process.

But other popular dishes, like stewed pigtail in an earthen pot (58 yuan), are readily available. Although not as famous as Dongpo’s pork, this dish has an interesting history as well.

Reader Mail: the Hangzhou UFO

Dear China Hearsay:

One of my staffers brought to my attention the problems that China is having with UFOs these days:

An unidentified flying object disrupted air traffic over Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang province, late Wednesday, the municipal government said Thursday. Xiaoshan Airport was closed after the UFO was detected at around 9 pm and some flights were rerouted to airports in Ningbo and Wuxi cities, said an airport spokesman.

I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the citizens of Hangzhou in these troubling times. As you may know, the great state of Arizona is no stranger to these kinds of problems. Our prayers are with you.

Back here in the States, the news about the airport incident is rather sketchy. However, if events have escalated from a simple “First Encounter” to something more insidious (i.e. third encounter or higher), you may find yourselves on the receiving end of an actual invasion, with aliens living among you and attempting to blend in. Arizona has been battling this grave threat lately, and the good news is that there are ways of identifying these aliens via visual cues, such as their choices of clothing and foot wear.

We wish you the best of luck. If we can be of any assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Very truly yours,

Janice Kay Brewer
Governor of Arizona

http://www.chinahearsay.com/

Summer foods and beverages that refresh

By Annie Wei

The hot and muggy weather can sap one’s energy and spoil the appetite. The antidote: soothing food and cooling drinks. Beijing Today scoured the city for the best places to get both.

Fish Bar

People like 1949, a hidden area of bars and restaurants behind Pacific Plaza. It has a spacious courtyard and area used as an art gallery. There is Beijing duck, a simple noodle restaurant and outdoor bar.

Recently, its sugar bar was converted into a toro and sushi restaurant. The space itself has not changed – it’s still a glass house with great lighting – but it has been tinted blue with bamboo-shaped lamps made of transparent resin.

Beijing Today recommends the blue fin tuna belly (360 yuan for five pieces). The fresh red meat feels heavy but is well cut. You can see its skin texture, which is almost semi-transparent. It is smooth and delicious.

enovate Chats With Hangzhou Creative Leaders

Charm Café

Charm Café is a youth focused creative centre located in Zhongshan Bei Lu, the creative street of Hangzhou. They provide a platform for Chinese artists and designers to present and sell their artwork, as well as regularly hosting offline activities to encourage creative thinking amongst Chinese youth. Some of their main activities include monthly West Lake Idea Mart (DIY Mart) and weekly Charm Café creative class and exhibition. They also help with organizing China Hangzhou Cultural & Creative Industry Expo in every October and China International Cartoon and Animation Festival in every May.

Shu Chang

Shu Chang is co-founder and manager of Chame café. He is 26 years old and studied Finance at Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics. He used to work for Hunan TV station as a TV host for one year, later he worked at a user generated content website for two years. Since he cannot give up his strong passion for youth cultural as well as design, in September 2009 he decided to start Charm café with the Hangzhou government’s support and investment from his partner. His dream is to promote creative culture and encourage creative thinking by educating Chinese youth and providing a platform for creatives from all around China to share and market their products.

 

Interview

During our weekend trip to Hangzhou, we sat down with Shu Chang and chatted over a few cups of joe. Here are some highlights from the conversation:

How do you describe the current youth culture in Hangzhou?

There is a phrase called “Hang’ Er Feng” which describes a trend following phenomenon in Hangzhou. A lot of young people are following and copying trends from outside of China, but I think it’s good, we can learn by following and copying, at the end we will discover our own style.
Hangzhou is more conservative than Shanghai in terms of accepting new things since we have a very deep and distinctive culture, but I think right now it’s the time for innovation and development based on our original culture.

What is the future outlook of youth culture in Hangzhou?

I think we will still be in the process of learning and copying within the next 3 to 5 years, but you can see there are more and more creative activities and parties in town amongst local youth. In 5 years, you will see much more youth focused indie brands as well as opinion leaders. Local culture will be the key influence and I think we will have our own and distinctive style by then.

http://enovatechina.com/

What Price Speed — to Hangzhou in 30 or 40 Minutes?

Just exactly how fast does China want its citizens to travel from Shanghai to Hangzhou?

That’s one of the most innocuous, and yet cynical, questions many ordinary Chinese have been asking their government since the Railway Ministry resurrected a controversial maglev line project covering the mere 200-kilometer distance between the two affluent cities.

On March 13, or the second-to-last day of China’s annual legislative session, the ministry gave the go-ahead for the magnetic levitation railway project that promises to cut the current one-hour journey by half when the fancy trains eventually hit the tracks.

The project, which is estimated to cost taxpayers as much as 40 billion yuan ($5.86 billion), was originally endorsed by China’s cabinet in 2006 and expected to begin operation when Shanghai hosts the World Expo in May. However, the government shelved the plan after it sparked a series of largely peaceful protests by hundreds of residents living along the proposed maglev route due to fears of harmful effects on health and local property prices.

Economics first. The question over the speed issue stems from the fact that the Railway Ministry has already embarked on a competing but much more environmentally-friendly high-speed train project, which upon targeted completion in October will reduce the twin-city journey to 40 minutes, just 10 minutes shy of its ambitious maglev counterpart. The route is also almost identical.

This has triggered concerns over a potentially massive waste of state funds. The Century Weekly Magazine cited an unnamed scientist close to the maglev project as saying: “The maglev line possesses a similar speed to the high-speed trains but it will cost lots of money and it will be a waste. Plus, there is no effective solution to the problems of noise and electromagnetic radiation.”

However, Sun Zhang, a professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, told the state-run People’s Daily that the expensive new maglev line “will help tap idle assets and improve resource allocation between Shanghai and Hangzhou.”

Professor Sun didn’t elaborate. But since his university has been tasked by the government to research the project, it would be extremely unlikely for him to say anything not in tune with the official line.

While Professor Sun is described by the local press as a “big fan” of maglev trains and the latest government approval made him “ecstatic”, the resurrection of the project is a nightmare for many of his compatriots.

The tens of thousands of residents along the proposed maglev route were so worried about their future health and property value that some of them staged a famous “walk” in the futuristic financial district in Shanghai’s Pudong area in late 2007 and early 2008. Many believe the protests forced the government to put the project on hold.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/03/16/what-price-speed-to-hangzhou-in-30-or-40-minutes/

Property costs won’t taper off

 

A burst of bank lending is driving real estate recovery.

 

By Han Manman

Housing prices are expected to continue their rise into next year as inflation looms and banks resume lending. The highest spikes can be expected in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, according to a report released by a government think tank early this week.

Property values recovered from last year’s market slump during the last few months, the report said. The average price of a home in the 70largest cities grew 3.9 percent since last October, its fastest year-on-year growth rate since September 2008.

Inflation is also expected to act as an incentive for investors to put more cash into property, as it tends to benefit from rising price levels.

The report, issued by the China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), forecasts a boom in the housing market between 2009 and 2010, with stabilization to come in the second half of next year. But during the first quarter, prices will remain stable regardless of demand.

The report also forecasts a jump in the consumer price index in the second quarter, and other policies may contribute to more housing purchases. Real estate investment is also likely to increase in the second half of next year.

“Due to rising inflation and its potential to continue into the first quarter as credit expands, property prices may pick up mi next year,” said Ni Pengfei, an expert at the CASS.

The report says the way to adjust and control the property market will be by maintaining stable market growth and preventing speculation and fluctuations.

“The government should encourage consumption because rising sales lead to growing investment. At the same time, speculation should be prevented, because it makes the market unstable,” Ni said.

An early recovery in the real estate sector allows developers TO have ample liquidity, which they will use to buy land at high prices, the report said. Local government is also trying to increase its take of land sales.

While the country’s long-term urbanization trend has underpinned the property market, housing affordability remains a concern.

Beijing introduced a range of policies to support the real estate market late last year, from reducing down payments and mortgage rates to making it easier for residents to sell homes.

A burst of bank lending, not government policies, had been the main factor driving real estate recovery, Ni said.

But he said Beijing should keep its stimulus policies in place, fine-tuning them to ensure they benefit ordinary home buyers instead of speculators.

The report advised the government to fine-tune its moderately loose monetary policy to meet the changing economic situation.

The report is the first green book of its kind published in China. Green books are published by government sectors to print current advice for politicians.

Learning from Billboards

“Without doubt the finest and most splendid city in the world” is how Marco Polo described the Song Dynasty capital Hangzhou. The 13th Century explorer drew attention to thousands of stone bridges, hillside monasteries and throngs of pleasure seekers strolling along the West Lake.

Hangzhou may have reminded Marco Polo of his native Venice.

What grabs 38-year-old American artist-curator Mathieu Borysevicz about Hangzhou is its signs. And signs and signs.

In thousands of photos in his new book, “Learning From Hangzhou,” Mr. Borysevicz documents “the pluralism” of a dynamic Chinese city. It’s a study of how low-brow advertising and other visual messages inundate residents in Hangzhou, and truly, all of urban China.

Billboards wrap buildings with bewildering arrays of advertising, bus stops swallow commuters in seas of messages, government campaigns urge society to mind manners, spray painted phone numbers offer fake diplomas, while grim red circles enclosing the Chinese character chai (拆) warn that a building faces impending demolition.

Mr. Borysevicz’s project began in 2003 when he was bicycling around Hangzhou to scout locations to install his own billboard art. Mr. Borysevicz peddled past the idyllic scenes that inspired Marco Polo and instead spotted a strip of hardware stores so plastered with Chinese characters that he felt the buildings served no purpose other than propping up the signage.

“There were buildings that were signs and signs that were buildings,” he writes in one of the essays that accompany photos.

In Hangzhou, Mr. Borysevicz sensed parallels with a landmark 1972 research and book project by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown called “Learning From Las Vegas.”. The earlier study explored the merger of commercial and pop culture in another freewheeling tourist city.

In a brief preface to Mr. Borysevicz’s book, Mr. Venturi and Ms. Brown write: “So move over Las Vegas and Viva Hangzhou!”

Opposite their comments is a full page photo of Hangzhou’s version of the Eiffel Tower. It is flanked by buildings that look like they belong on the Left Bank. The book documents how Hangzhou also has one of China’s oldest Catholic churches and mosques, as well as Soviet architecture, colonial period buildings and a mini-Venice.

Hangzhou has gotten less attention for its rapid transformation than places like Beijing and Shanghai.

And Mr. Borysevicz says he probed Hangzhou partly because he considered it “manageable.” For a Chinese city perhaps: Hangzhou adds 100,000 people per year, has tripled in area over the past decade and sits in a Yangtze Delta region with perhaps 90 million souls.

The clutter and chaos of Hangzhou screams from every page of this fat book.

On one level, there’s drive-by shallowness to Mr. Borysevicz’s probe. He says he isn’t editorializing, only indexing and itemizing. “The idea is not to present what is novel, but on the contrary, to codify what is ubiquitous and subsequently what has become invisible to us,” he writes.

But how to make sense of the structural oxymoron of places like Hangzhou?

His eye captures suburban farmhouses decked out in an architectural style Mr. Borysevicz describes as ranging “from Islamic to Disneyland.” He shows how modern residents of Hangzhou’s slapdash apartment blocks harness the mystical powers of feng shui, or “wind and water:” They buy the latest electrical fans and bottled-water dispensers.

Mr. Borysevicz makes collages of what Chinese builders once considered modernity: buildings in blue glass and white bathroom tile.

“It’s a mess,” the author said at a recent reading.

–James T. Areddy

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2009/09/14/learning-from-billboards/