Dreams do come true!
by our own T Mark Hall
Like some others, I've often had a dream that I might win the lottery and (naturally) spend the millions on founding a superlative go centre. Unfortunately somebody beat me to it. Fortunately I was able to spend some time in this new "stately pleasure dome", not all that far from Xanadu as it happens!
I am of course referring to the venue of the 31st World Amateur Championships, transferred this year, 2010, from Japan to China, for the first time since the 9th Championships which were held in Beijing. This venue is a skyscraper hotel owned, designed and occupied by go players.
It is the Tianyuan Tower Hotel in Hangzhou in south-east China, about an hour and a half (180 kilometres) from Shanghai by fast train. The train trip only costs about £6 single fare. In contrast the hotel is an expensive five star - lucky me! A number of professional events have already been held at this venue but this year's World Amateur was really the first opportunity for a large number of western go players to be guests at the hotel. I was there because I was representing Britain for the second time in the World Amateur.
The Tianyuan Tower Hotel, Hangzhou
The whole area around the hotel is a modern development alongside the river and an easy taxi ride from Hangzhou South station. The word tianyuan 天元 is the same as tengen in Japanese and means not so much the centre of the board as the origin of heaven. Which is appropriate for a building which is 34 stories high and is topped by a revolving restaurant. You can dine and have an ever-changing view of the river and the city. I am told that you can see the famous West Lake at times, but unfortunately on my visit the weather was not clear enough. All I could see was the river which is just beyond the Tower in this photo!