A Fresh Perspective on Travel Every Day
Taizhou is one of those Chinese cities with a history that stretches staggeringly deep into the past. It was first settled some five thousand years ago and is home to both the only Great Wall in Southern China and a 1500-year-old monastery that founded a school of Buddhism. That monastery is located atop Tiantai Mountain, which is only one of many natural wonders within the city’s borders.
Marco Polo visited Hangzhou in 1290 and was so overwhelmed by the beauty of theXi Hu, or West Lake, that he transcribed, and thus popularized, a famous Chinese saying “Shang you tiantang, xia you Suhang,”which means “in heaven there is paradise, on earth there is Su[zhou] and Hang[zhou].” Chinese now like to call Hangzhou “Paradise on Earth”. It’s a lofty nickname, but a visit to Hangzhou does provide a lovely, if not peaceful, alternative to the hustle and bustle of Shanghai and other larger Chinese cities.