Hangzhou Wrap Up

I hope you have enjoyed the pics from our recent trip to Hangzhou in the last couple of posts. To wrap it up, here is a random assortment of pictures which represent some of the interesting sites and sounds of Hangzhou and the surrounding cities we visited:
Driving into Hangzhou from the airport you are greeted by their nascent CBD and one of the many unknown icons beautifying Chinese city-scapes. Looks like someone else got to build the deathstar, sans boolean, before Rem did.
At Ling Yin temple, one of the most beautiful things we saw in Hangzhou, you can find hundreds of Buddhas carved into cliffs, caves, and grottoes that line the valley before heading uphill to the temples.
Coming out of the last temple at Ling Yin we were greeted by a gorgeous rainbow stretched across the sky, connecting two of the mountain peaks. Here is a shot of it on our way back down the slope.
Wuzhen and its Discontents: In Wuzhen we were greeted by a local resident inviting all the "invaders to get the &*(% out" of her town, which is apparently what the sign says in English. I have to say that I wholeheartedly empathize-the government has turned Wuzhen into a Disneyfied city of ghosts--the place feels incredible dead and overrun with tourists.
Later on we saw more icons, like the double inverted pyramid skyscraper in the background here.
In Suzhou we visited the beautiful Humble Administrator's Garden, which will celebrate its 500th birthday next year. This garden inspired both Wang Shu and IM Pei, architects of the buildings featured in the previous 3 posts.
And as always, we saw TONS of people everywhere we went.

If you like these please check out my flickr page for more pics from the trip and elsewhere.