Friday we took a bullet train to Hangzhou (I've been told to pronounce it Hong Joe, according to Debbie). The train reached speeds of 350 kilometers per hour (exceeding 200mph). This is reportedly the oldest city in China, if you can believe the internet.

One thing is for certain - the city and lake are beautiful, the people are even more enjoyable. This is one of the cities where Hudson Taylor set up camp, so it had particular fascination to me.

The delight was to sit down and shoot pictures of the crowds that were gathered on the boardwalk around the lake. Whenever you shoot photos or video, groups of 25-30 gather around the foreigner to see what is in the lcd screen. It was delightful to see how congenial both young and old truly were. Debbie's light red hair seemed to be a point of fascination for many. People will stop and stare, plus circle around for a better look.

Debbie and I have not laughed so hard for an entire day in quite a while. Hangzhou provided us with much enjoyment and many new memories.

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