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hangzhou

杭州

I first came to Hangzhou in the summer of 2000 to teach at a Summer English at Zhejiang University. Hangzhou is part of that famous Chinese proverb: "Shang You Tian Tang, Xia You Su Hang". ("In Heaven there is Paradise, On earth there is Suzhou and Hangzhou".)

Marco Polo in his "Travels of Marco Polo", spent many pages talking about Hangzhou (he called it "Kin-sai" - Kublai Khan's name for the city).  He described it as "... the noble and magnificent city of Kin-sai, a name that signifies 'the celestial city', and which it merits from its pre-eminence to all others in the world, in point of grandeur and beauty, as well as from its abundant delights, which might lead an inhabitant to imagine himself in paradise''. (Travels of Marco Polo. ed. Wm. Marsden, Wordsworth Editions Ltd. p.183)

I enjoyed Hangzhou so much during my summer there in 2000, that I returned to accept a teaching position at Zhejiang University in August 2001 where I was on the foreign language college faculty for two years. I now teach classes in Zhejiang University's Continuing Education Dept. and have also joined the faculty of the Zhejiang Institute of Education which trains Chinese teachers. I also write articles for the Zhejiang University GlobalTEFL Network's education website.

Hangzhou is a great place to live.

Numerous pages at this website are Hangzhou-related. Here are some links to help you find them:

friends
 students
 scenes
 stories