Blogs from Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, Asia - page 8

After the birthday celebrations on Tuesday, Datri and I were looking at the calendar, and noting that we had no other breaks in the schedule after our current week off, decided that we needed to get out of town again, even though we'd just recently went to Putuoshan. We had to be back for a dinner with the Producers and Managers on the 20th, so that meant only one night away, and preferably somewhere relatively easy to travel too. After a couple ideas, we decided on Hangzhou, a city that the company will actually visit later in the tour, but only for one day, and that likely means that I won't get to see any of it, and she won't get to see much. Thus, we'll visit now. A few stops and two changes on the ... read more

Thursday 6/30: Lots of green scenes! West Lake, Tea Plantation, Buddhist Monastery Today toured Hangzhou's exceptional West Lake (Xi Hu), which is about 3 miles across and 9 miles around. The area around the lake is filled with islets and temples, pavilions and gardens, causeways and arched bridges, which have constituted the supreme example of lakeside beauty in China ever since Hangzhou served as China's capital during the Southern Song Dynasty. We began with a ½ hour walk through the beautiful gardens towards the boat dock. During the tour, we saw: Solitary Island (Gushan Dao), situated on the lake's northwest shore, connected to the mainland by the Xiling Bridge, dedicated to poet Su Xiaoxiao (picture of her tomb later), who was entombed here in AD 501; and the Bai Causeway (Bai Ti), which connects Solitary Island ... read more

Should've taken my camera last night, but hadn't realised the restaurant would offer such a wealth of photo opportunities. We met up with the Russian family (parents, teenage girl and wee boy) and they suggested a favourite restaurant of theirs over the other side of the river. It's near a korean place we've been to, and on one of my running routes, but is quite expensive so not somewhere we've been before. It was very posh inside with a whole wall lined with fish tanks. I'd say 98% of the restaurants here have fish tanks, but you can tell the quality of a place by how clean they keep them, and these were immaculate. There were crabs of all sizes along with all the usual fishy creatures. The restaurant was a hot pot restaurant, which was ... read more

Exciting times in Tonglu. Rachael and I have lots of weekends away in the diary now, and our last mini holiday to book. We have four days off at the beginning of May and we're trying to decide between going to Suzhou, which is a city, and a beach. I've wanted to go to Suzhou for a while, but kind of feel that we've seen several in the last few months and that it might be nice to do something completely different. No doubt the beach will have temples in the vicinity anyway! I need to check the weather and accommodation etc but I've got my fingers crossed for a beach break. Actually, the weather's been gorgeous up until today. I'm very close to becoming addicted to the mango milkshakes from a new shop near the ... read more

I have returned to China with a vengeance! Flying into Hong Kong on a misty and rainy night I only stayed as long as it took me to get a new Chinese visa. I wanted a six month multiple entry, what I got was a two month double entry with the added rule that after one month I have to leave the country and re-enter it. So a great start to China you could say! The visa took 4 days to process in the meantime I spent my days in this great city staring moodily at the fog which didn't want to evaporate, looking glumly at the clouds overhead which sprinkled rain on my head as if mocking me and trying my hardest to discern the famous sky-line this town is famous for. To keep me ... read more