2015 - China (Part 4 - Hangzhou)

To 杭州

Wednesday 28 October 2015 - Thursday 29 October 2015
View 2015 Hong Kong & Shanghai on nzhamsta's travel map.

Wednesday 28 October

The four of us (Hung, me, Hung's sister Yi, and Wei Wei) had an early start for the 0910 train to Hangzhou from Shanghai Hongqiao station. This was one of the new, fast G series trains and we clicked over 302kph according to the screen in the cabin.

After checking into our moderate central city hotel, we had lunch at Grandma's Restaurant which I gather is quite famous.

An interesting restaurant in Hangzhou. I wonder what Neolithics had for lunch.

Tourists heading out on the West Lake.

A busker near the West Lake.

Tourists mugging for photos.

We caught a boat out across the West Lake to visit the various islands. This is supposed to be one of China's most scenic spots but the combination of low cloud and smog spoiled the view and we could hardly see anything at all.

A pavilion on the West Lake.

Organising a photo shoot.

Tourists on the island in the West Lake.

A small pavilion on one of the island in the West Lake.

After a walk around the small island we caught the boat back to the mainland quite a long way from the main part of Hangzhou. This meant a long walk back around the waterfront to the hotel.

Hung at Hangzhou.

Being a tourist is hard work!

A depiction of an old Hangzhou story.

A floating restaurant.

Another statue in the lake.

Thursday 29 October

I managed to find that most Chinese of places for breakfast, McDonalds.

Weather was shocking and it was chucking it down most of the day.

Yet another large lunch at a restaurant on the side of the lake. The food was okay although the peanut butter flavoured ice cream was a bit different (and not very nice),

The restaurant.

The usual entertainment of reading the menus.

From there we went to the Lifeng Temple. This is a reconstructed temple on a bit of a hill overlooking the lake, although with the low cloud we couldn't see a thing.

The climb up to the Lifeng Temple.