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Published: October 18th 2010
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Shanghai Railway Station
It's not too hard to find Jim and Leah! We traveled to West Lake (Xihu, pronounce she-who, xi is west, hu is lake) in Hangzhou from Oct 4th through 7th, over the Chinese National holiday when Jim had some time off. This was our first time taking the train anywhere in China. A friend helped purchase the tickets ahead of time and it all went very smooth. When we arrived in Hangzhou, we somehow missed the exit for the taxi line, and when we found it, it was WAY TOO long. We knew that our hotel wasn't very far, so we hired 2 pedicab drivers to take us. It was a fun ride! Definitely something that everyone visiting China should experience. Pedicabs are the modern "rickshaws" of the cities.
We had booked reservations at the Da hua Hotel, by a Chinese friend's recommendation, and it was perfect! It was right on the lake, but the general public couldn't get to the hotel grounds. We had a beautiful garden with a waterfall outside of our room. There was a bench, which I thoroughly enjoyed - you could sit by the lake and people watch! It was also a great place to watch the sunset. We had a big area of restaurants,
called Xihu Tian Di right next to us on one side, and many more restaurants and shopping about a 10 min walk in the other direction.
All around the lake is a walkway with many parks, so we walked, and walked, and walked some more! There were Osmanthus trees blooming all over. These are used to make tea and I think some Chinese medicines.
The second night we were there, we met Bob, a man who used to work for Jim who lives in Hangzhou. We had dinner with him, his fiance, her sister and cousin, and Bob's brother's wife and two children. It was very enjoyable, most of them spoke English quite well. The girl sitting next to me convinced me to try a duck tongue - since Jim and Leah aren't willing to be too adventurous with food, it usually falls upon me to be polite and try at least one of the Chinese favorites! I can't really say how it was because there wasn'tmuch to it! The sauce it was in was good though, but that was all I could really taste. There was lotus root in a sweet sauce that was very good.
The next day,
I bought a lotus seed pod at one of the small souvenir/snack shops. I knew you took them apart and ate the seeds and was curious. Later that evening, we took it apart and tried them. I thought they were supposed to be sweet, but it seemed bitter to me. We are going to try cooking the rest. I took time to draw it in my nature journal though.
On Wednesday, we took a tour boat to Small Yingzhou Islet. There were way too many people on one small island, but we walked around it and saw what's called "Three Pools Mirroring the Moon." There are 3 small pagodas, built in 1621, in the water. Supposedly, when there is a full moon and candles are placed in each pagoda, the candlelight mixes with the moonlight.
Since Leah just finished studying Marco Polo, we went searching for his statue after the return boat trip. He had visited Hangzhou in the late 1300's and remarked in his journal that it was "the most beautiful and magnificent city in the world." Not far from the statue, we saw a group of people all looking up in a tree, so we joined them, wondering
Linda andLeah in pedicab
The taxi line was LONG, so knowing that our hotel wasn't too far, we decided to hire pedicabs what they were looking at - it turned out to be a squirrel! It was actually the first I've seen in China and by the looks of the crowd, they must not see them very often either! They ahould come to NC!
There are many fantastic sights to see around West Lake, but we just took it easy instead of fighting the crowds and we really enjoyed ourselves. We plan to go back sometime when there aren't such crowds, then we'll go some places that are farther than walking distance.
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Deb
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Liked these pics!
Lin, this looked like a great trip. I'm amazed at the lack of traffic on the streets (the pedicab video). It looks so calm and peaceful.