Tea at Xixi Wetlands

I joined Zhejiang Lab just before Chinese New Year. I went with my department to Xixi National Wetland Park to drink tea (outside in the cold!) to celebrate.

The park is a huge green historical area with canals, ponds, old buildings, cobblestone pathways, and stone bridges. Its name means “west creek”. It has museums and shops and restaurants. We didn’t do a lot of exploring, but we bought some persimmons and nian gao (sticky starchy “year cake”) on our way to have tea and snacks, and we visited a longquan porcelain shop and climbed up a pagoda on our way back.

Here is six eighths of my department. One colleague is taking the photo, and the boss had a schedule conflict so he didn’t join us.
The tea gazebo was out the back of this building.
There are ducks hanging up to dry on the little bridge there.
A view of the same building from the top of the nearby pagoda.
More buildings.
Lots more to explore another day!