Some Buddhas carved into stone.

This is only a small section of the whole temple.

So far, so cold. I am in Xiasha (almost pronounced "Sasha"), which is a university town just outside of Hangzhou, and it is colder than Melbourne in dead winter. "Boo-fricken-hoo", I can hear my detractors saying. I am not complaining... yet. But soon I will be heading north to Harbin where it is a little colder. According to statistics, Harbin gets down to around -20 degrees celcius. The plan is to visit the Harbin Ice Festival and I am hoping the cold will be worth it. I am also hoping that my camera will not totally wig-out in such conditions. If it does, I can always help the local economy by buying some postcards.

Last night a friend and I headed out for dinner. Most restaurants in town are closed at the moment because all the universities (there are 15 of them!) are closing for the winter holidays. So we had to go to what looked like quite an expensive place. The meal was delicious and filling, yet ended up costing us less than $4AUD each, including beer. I love this place.

Today I visited an ancient Buddhist temple in Hangzhou. Many of us have seen Buddhist temples before, but it beats staying in the appartment or playing on the internet all day. This one was particularly huge and it had the added bonus of having stone carved Buddhas just across the river. I.e. two tourist attractions in one.

Whilst I was there the monks did what monks will inevitably do - they chanted

Don't you just love it when Windows screws up. This is some kinda advertising board just outside of Shanghai Central Station.

P.S. Kirsty demanded that I not post any photos unless I am in them.