Milk Tea, Bamboo, Plum Blossoms, and Pagodas

First, might I say that I love real Chinese food. Tea...there's always tea. I tried milk tea which is delightfully refreshing and has these gelatin balls that you suck up your straw and chew on. Fun fun! Then dumplings, dong po rou (a teryaki like pork with a thick layer of fat that is specific to Hangzhou and delicious), bao zi, egg cake, POCKY!, duck, and much more. I've also tried fungus and frog soup, dumpling soup with little shimp that have their eyes and everything still, grape and aloe juice. Most of us don't speak but a few sentences of Chinese, so when ordering food we just kind of point at something on the menu and hope its not freaky. The bright side is even if something isn't great, which has never been the case so far, everything is very cheap so you dont have to worry about wasting too much money on trying something else. You can find a typical chinese meal for anywhere from 3-10 yuan which equals a little over a dollar or less. :O When we eat larger group meals it is served on a giant lazy suzan at a large round table and we order numerous dishes to sample. Everyone attacks with their chopsticks and it can get rather competitive. We find we are honing our chopstick skills rather quickly ;D.
Other than the food we have been to see the XiXi Wetlands where we took a boat ride through fields of blossoming plum trees and bamboo. Amongst them was a genuine old silk farm and a town square with traditional chinese architecture and scenic surroundings. My favorite thing was an over hundred year of tree that twisted and turned in all directions over the water. The next day we went to the West Lake area and walked up the steps to a pagoda with a great view over the lake. Unfortuantely the city, despite its natural beauty, is rather smoggy at times and the view can be rather obscure. The pagoda had many beautiful wood carvings, paintings, and sculptures. We learned about the white snake fairy lady and got quite the work out. Then today we went to the Huang Long (or Yellow Dragon) Park. Here we had another strenous hike through the winding hills of Hangzhou and saw the Yellow Dragon waterfall, the temple for lovers, and many the scenic views. Then we were off to a mausoleum that told the history of several heroic Chinese generals. After taking a bit of a break our group decided to head off to Traditional town where there is lots of great shopping for traditional Chinese type objects...go figure. It's been a great time.
Some notes on environmental observations
-for many garbage cans there is a matching recycling bin right next to it ( smart huh? )
-I've been told that pretty much all the garbage is picked through for recyclables
-Sometimes the sky is more brown than blue (smog)
-Many Chinese people enjoy getting out into nature and doing exercises such as tai chi
-We must boil all our water before drinking it, which is why tea is drank so often
-We have to closely monitor our energy use at our dorm since we only get a fixed amount each month
Why can't some of these things be implemented in the U.S.? ( the first and last ones)