Eclipsed in Hangzhou

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We were elated at the thought of leaving the scorching tempertaures of Suzhou but a little dissapointed that, as a result of the heat, we couldn't fully appreciate all that it had to offer.

Hangzhou was a three hour train ride from Suzhou. The journey took us through the metropolis of Shanghai but we'd decided on this occasion to give Shanghai a miss. We were pretty tight for time and having been city hopping for the past six weeks, the thought of going to another larger, brighter and more bustling city didn't seem to appealing. Shanghai is hosting the World Expo in 2010 and the construction works in preparation for the event were aparent from our hard seats on the train. Even in Suzhou we had seen the boom in construction intended to accomodate and impress those in attendance.

The West Lake area of Hangzhou was unlike any urban area in China we'd seen so far; it was very green and, whats more, it's green spaces were all free. A rarity in the cities of China. There were also areas of West Lake that were very westernised. All parks and gardens were constantly irrigated and emmaculately kept by an army of green fingered gardeners. The temperature was tolerably in the mid thirties and a cool breeze made walking along the lakeside walkways and through the acres upon acres of park land pleasurable. Our hostel was on the outskirts just next to an area of the lake with stunning views of the Pagdoda on the hilltop. The sunsets were increadible.

We headed off on our second day into the surrounding hills just outside Hangzhou. There were many tea plantations. It was a short bus journey up toward the Dragon Well Tea village apparently one of China's most famous brands of green tea. We spent a day dandering around the charming tea village and its environs and up to the dragon well itself.

Our main reason for staying in Hangzhou and staying for as long as we did was due to the eclipse. We were not alone. Our hostel was fully booked for the whole week and there was a group of eclipse junkies also staying in our hostel. These guys, who seemed to know eveything there is to know about eclipses, booked the hostel, a staggering, two years in advance. We weren't as keen as those guys but there was something quite inticing about being cast into darkness during daylight hours for over five minutes. Most of the chat in the hostel leading up to eclipse day was eclipse related and there were many chats about the best spots to view the phenomenon. The day before the big event we had met an English guy who had spent the previous day trecking around the Hanzhou countryside in search of a decent spot. Seeing as we had put no thought into a viewing spot whatsoever we decided to tag along.

Shaun took us just outside Hangzhou along a forest walk up into the hills. At the top there was a pavillion from which you could see the whole of West Lake. Shaun's research had certainly paid off. Not only because the view was pretty descent but also because there we no screaming Chinese tourists. However, just as Shaun's head had started to grow with smuggness, a plague of hornets descened. They were harmless enough creates but they gave no regard whatsoever to your personal space and when there were dozens of them buzzing around it was pretty uncomfortbale. Fortunately for us a crazy bare chested Chinese man bearing a fan came to our rescue and began to slay the hornets by the dozen. Everytime a hornet appeared, there was a flash of the fan and with the hornet grounded, the fatal blow was delivered with a measured blow with a sandal.

Although Hangzhou was, in places, very westernised it was still possible to escape to the more local, traditional and, more importantly, affordable places. We spent a night with a group from our hostel eating street food - veggie kebbabs, fried noodles and the like - and guzzling not so cultural typical red wine at two quid a bottle. We spent our last night with the same group of guys taking a lakeside stroll and renting a motorboat.

Hangzhou is a really nice city and certainly somewgere we could've spent a lot longer. We left Hangzhou in the middle of an early morning thunderstorm. Unprepared and thus extremely wet we struggled to find a taxi willing to take us through the storm to the bus station. Luckily we came up trumps and made our way to the long distance bus station.

Destination the island of Gulanyu.

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