Qinghefang "Old Street"

Hangzhou, still only in Hangzhou! I don't want to leave. The picture to your left, this is where I entered Qinghefang "Old Street". The photo was taken about sixty degrees to the right of the more commercial entrance - the one that is more traveled by. I took the route to the right because it was quieter, smaller in size, more peaceful. It was full of storefronts selling jade, and various types of stone. The craftsmen do their work close to the storefront window. If you have ever had a desire to see jade figurines being manufactured by hand this is the place. Uh'em!
Qinhefang was a nice way to spend the afternoon, taking pictures, buying a few gifts, socializing/haggling with tea dealers in their shops, learning. This place is about one half mile from the hostel I'm staying at; which is on the southeast side of the West Lake on Nanshan Lu ('Lu' meaning, path, way, or road).
Today I got a better understanding of the seven grades of Longjin tea. However I am unsure if I have sampled "Superior" grade, the top of the top shelf stuff. The answer that I am getting from the tea dealers is that I am drinking it (at this moment, I am sampling some of the product). It's tasty and young. The idea is to get the stuff that is harvested in March of whatever year you're in. That way it is closest to the budding of the tea leaves as possible, and all the goodness that that brings. This is fairly easy to discern, the size of the leaves should be small, and the color a light green with fuzzy almost yellow highlights - I could digress but that would probably bore you so lets look at pictures of -



SNAKES IN JARS!
This was the find of the day folks. Beautiful, refined, strange, mysterious to the unenlightened western mind. This tea I'm drinking is great, it seems to make my minor, chronic, body-aches subside - I wonder what a cup of the snake juice does? Anyway, the reptiles were found in but one of a dozen or so Chinese medicine shops found at Qinhefang. Less shocking is what appears to be, Infusing Ginseng in Jars was found at the same shop as the snakes.

What do you think this piece of organic matter looks like?
I think it looks like a hairy headless woman with an elongated left breast. She seems to be in a rush. What's going on? I am hungry. I haven't been Skyped - it's only about eight thirty EST (am).
I am going to seek dinner. Maybe by the time I get back my friends will be fishing online.