Well, it is. Our trip to Hangzhou started with a superb train ride out of Shanghai (leaving Shanghai was a good thing, leaving on a spacious, clean and fast train was a bonus, seriously the best train we've been on).
The city of Hangzhou is pretty much the same as the other big cities we've been to so far - huge numbers of apartment blocks and skyscapers, massive shopping malls, and bus/car/bike/truck mayhem everywhere.
However, just on the edge of the city is a lake that seems to be a favourite for Chinese tourists. A large lake surrounded by lush gardens, bridges and pagodas, once you're next to the lake you can't hear the traffic any more and it is a welcome relief to just sit and do nothing for once.
As usual, the skies were overcast for us, but it only added to the peacefulness of the area. Even when it rained it was still nice for a walk.
The "love bridge" on the lake
We stayed in a nice little guesthouse, with very helpful staff and nice cold beer to come back to after a day's sightseeing.
Ally on the lake, with the Leifeng Pagoda in the background
Some more temples in a complex next to the lake dedicated to... some important
dude...
The main night market in town is the best we've been to so far, hundreds of little stores, for a change NOT all selling the same crap (why someone in a store would ask you to looka-looka at the same handbags and dolls as the previous 10 stores that you've just ignored always amazes me... )
I ate a heap of who-knows-what, we watched a little shadow puppet show and just walked around checking out all the different things on offer. Apparently Hangzhou is famous for it's silk, it's main brand of tea (Longjing) and, somehow, scissors... we didn't bother with any of these...
Never did find out exactly what Number 9 entailed...
Mean looking dude watching over the night market
The next day we jumped on a bus to the city, and changed to another bus to see a water-city called Wuzhen. This was once a bustling city of traders in canals, but is now a tourist park (sort of Sovereign Hill on water...). It was a really hot day and we were both feeling the pain after an hour or so getting lost in the villages, but it was quite well done. However there was no-one there really, and it didn't have much atmosphere. Nice to see the old-style architecture (or replicas of...)
Wuzhen photos
So we jumped on the bus back into town and waited for the shuttle to take us back to West Lake.
Only problem was, the bus had finished for the day, so we were a bit stuck. we asked (by 'asked' i mean pointed and grunted in a manner that surely translated properly) a few people for help finding another bus, and eventually a guy helped us out... a lot... not speaking a word of english, we managed to point out where we wanted to go.
First he checked with a few cops, before one of them told him a bus to get to the other side of town, so we got on it, and he jumped on with us, and then paid for us! Once on the other side of town, we all got off, he hailed a cab, and again jumped in with us, took us back to the lake, then paid again, jumped out and ran off!
We've had quite a few experiences like that, where people just look after you brilliantly and will take nothing in return...
I reckon if you wanted to be a bastard, you could probably travel and eat for nothing if you just sweet-talked (or sweet-grunted) a few locals along the way... they're that nice...
The initial plan was to have 2 days in Hangzhou, and then Ally wanted us to get another bus to a mountaintop region called Moganshan, which apparently is a cool, forested area that's meant to be nice for chilling. However, enjoying the West Lake as we were, with quite a few sights left to see, and our day's experience getting stranded in the city, we decided to stay a few more nights where we were and take it easy. We managed to get one more night at our hostel, but the saturday night apparently the whole area gets booked out by locals, so our hostel was full. the guy there managed to find a room at a nearby hostel (which apparently was having electricity problems sometimes), which we pretty much had to take if we wanted a bed. Turns out 'electricity problems' actually meant that the one room available had NO electricity (in a place where the temperature is mid 30s and well over 80% humidity, not having aircon turned out to be a pretty uncomfortable... and smelly... experience. but oh well, shit happens.
One of the main sites we were still to see was the Lingyin Temple, a huge Buddhist series of temples that work their way up a mountain. The sky was clear today, which just meant we had direct sunlight for a change, again you wouldn't want to have been near us on the bus on the way back...
Anyway, this was a very cool area. the path leading to the temples has hundreds of Buddhist carvings in the rocky mountains, with little streams running through them, was obviously a great place to get in the mood for some meditiation.
Laughing Buddha With Big Belly. He's like my idol...
One of the temples at Lingyin
A little further up (literally) from the Lingyin was a monastary, partially open to us tourists. We were tiring at this point, but was well worth the walk up, seeing the little orange dudes strutting their stuff amongst great scenery and nice little temples.
Um... bamboo.
Yep... monks...
Once we walked back to the entrance, we jumped on a cable car up to the top of another mountain, which gave great views over the lake and the city. Of more value was that i then found out Ally isn't a fan of heights, so rocking the carriage a little made my day.
Uninpiring day of the West Lake, Hangzhou city, and smog...
Our last day in Hangzhou we spent looking at more local sights. A short walk from our hostel we found a Silk Museum. Not so exciting a proposition I know, but it was quite interesting (and was airconditioned, so anything is exciting when that's the case).
The best bit i think was at the front entrance, where there was a basket of the little guys weaving their magic. Pretty cool to watch them. And the aircon was strongest in that part of the building...
Silkworms at work
We then jumped on another bus which would it's way up through hills strewn with tea plantations, through little roadside villages, looking for the Tea Museum (in the hope of more air-con). A young local chick asked us if we knew where we were going, turns out she just finished her uni degree in Hangzhou and was going to the Tea Museum (and other local sights not yet visited) before heading off to work in Shanghai. So we went around the museum, and our new friend explained a few things to us (her parents run a tea plantation somewhere, so she knew her stuff) and then we asked her to join us for lunch, which, stupid us, she then insisted on paying for.
Ally and 'Bik'
We then got the bus back into town and walked around the night market again. This time, we had a bit of inside knowledge into which shops to bother going into and Ally made a few purchases. We managed to buy our friend (her name is Bike or something, i never quite worked it out) a drink finally, and after more walking around the market were done for the night.
We also went to a big pagoda right beside the lake, the Leifeng Pagoda. The one there now was only built a few years ago (and even has a lift to the top - nice), but was built on top of a much older one in the same spot (and the foundations for which are nestled inside the new foundations, quite cool) with great night views of the lake and surrounds (my photos didn't turn out too well).
Leifeng Pagoda
So it was great to get out of the big cities for a change and relax, a great place to come to 'get away' for a while.
We then headed back to Shanghai for a night to take a flight to our next port of call - Xi'an.
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