Blogs from Hangzhou , China, Asia - page 29

Two-hour bus ride from Suzhou to Hanzhou through land that looks as if it’s been flooded recently, but which in reality is rice-paddies with occasional farmers standing thigh deep in the water. Older buildings are soul-less grey boxes with prison windows. The newly-emerging architecture is colourful, with arched windows, red tile roofs and small corner-points as an echo of ancient style. Some have a short spire with three shiny steel balls rising in progressivley smaller size. Decoration, or lightning rod? They look like something from Edison- or Tesla-era electrical science. Hanzhou, a city of about 7 million, is prosperous. The youth hostel is on West Lake, the city’s main attraction, and across the street are side-by-side Ferrari and Porsche dealerships. There are plenty of foreign cars, from Audi, Buick, Cadillac, Mercedes and Mistsubishi, to Peugeot, Toyota, ... read more

Hangzhou was described by Marco Polo who allegedly visited the city in 1300 as ‘The City of Heaven’ this is something that we do not think would worthy the same title now but non the less Hangzhou has got some interesting places still woth visiting. The huge West Lake or Xi Hu is situated at the heart of Hangzhou and covers over three square miles, it is surrounded by hills and high rise buildings as well as an underpass which cuts its way underneath the lake from one side to the other. The entire walk reportedly takes a whole day to walk leisurely around stopping along the way to view the different views across the lake and to watch men fish huge carp out of the water, along with exploring the different gardens and islands. We ... read more

After our fun few days in Shanghai, we took the bus to Hangzhou, the "number 1" tourist city of China. Before I start, I just want to say that we quickly noticed how loud Chinese people speak. Seriously, one would think they're in a fight or something. Just sitting in this Internet room (in which we had to give our passports, interesting) two guys are screaming at each other so we all turned around and guess what? They're sitting right next to each other!! Anyways, we checked into our hotel and thanked Dave for finding yet another nice hotel. We went out towards the lake for dinner and found a Korean restaurant! That was exciting since we'd had it in Shanghai and realized how much we missed it! So we went in and shocked the owner ... read more

Next morning they picked me up promptly and Rose asked if I wanted to go anywhere else? I said to the Linglin Palace Temple. Ok, no problem. Simon invited his friend “Ward” and wife and child (Betty and the Beave, I think) and he drove us all there. Once again the traffic was terrible, but we got there OK. Funny thing happened, on the road to the temple, people on the sidewalk would RUN up to the car jabbering and yelling. Happened once, twice, then on the third time, I asked what they were doing? Rose told me that they try to intimidate car drivers into taking them to be a guide for "the best parking, the best sites, the best food, etc. They would charge alot of money. Capitolism at its best. Linglin Temple was ... read more

We left Shanghai and went to a Buddhist Temple and monastary that is being built. 2 hours from Shanghai. Since the Communists are allowing some religion nowadays, wealthy Chinese are donating money to build temples. This one is in the "countryside". Mr. Xu and Leo both have donated money and have bought a dorm room to visit anytime they want. They both invited us to go to the temple for may 1st, the Labor day holiday in China. Most factories are closed. So we drove there and arrived in good shape even though the traffic was crowded. This area is "old China" We arrived at a crossing bridge in front of the Temple gatehouse, but stopped because we didnt think the bridge would take the weight of the car. o we got out and walked the ... read more