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Published: January 7th 2009
West Lake Youth Hostel is on Nanshan Road and right beside the lake, just out of the main city area. It’s a fantastic little place, with such a nice ambience, friendly helpful staff who speak some English and within easy distance of restaurants, temples, museums, bus and of course the lake and the magnificent walk and paths and gardens.
We booked a private room, with its own shower and toilet with towels and linen supplied; just bring your toilet paper. Tea and coffee facilities are provided in each room, with plasma TV and reverse cycle air con, a neat little home away from home.
The hostel has no self-help kitchen, but instead has a cook and a little restaurant with both Eastern and Western menus, at quite reasonable prices. 16 -26Y for a bowl of noodles and meat and veggie, 20 Y for a cooked Western breakfast. They sell beer and wine, at almost supermarket prices, with a great lounge and dining area, Big screen TV and DVD’s, complete with free Internet usage on 3 computers and a guitar. Bike hire is 40Yuan for all day, with a 100Yuan deposit.
We had a great night in after one
West Lake Hostel
Lions guarding the entryof our days out, chatting with the other hostel guests, all Chinese while we were there, except for the last night when there were three French people. I started mucking around on the guitar, and we ended up having a sing along with a guy and a girl, one from Shanghai and the other from Nanjing. Both uni students, one with a love of The Beatles so with the help of the Internet we got up the words and chords to “Hey Jude”, and away we went, I love how music completely destroys any cultural and language barriers. My guitar playing is not that hot, but it’s OK for those sorts of occasions, especially if you sing loudly.
I ended up showing Felix, the guy from Nanjing who was doing a degree in cartooning, my blog and facebook to show him pictures of where I lived in Australia, and teaching him how to say his English name properly and what it meant in English.
Most Chinese have an English name usually unrelated to their Chinese one, and often chosen at random in primary school.
We have met so many people on our travels who really want to try
West Lake Hostel
Christmas is everywhere in China out their English and make a huge effort to come and talk to you, rolling down car windows to yell hello, deliberately coming to stand next to you and asking you where you are from, and its not just what look like “educated” people either who can speak English, we have been surprised by some people who look like they have had a hard life who really want to welcome you to China and find out about you.
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