Hangzhou

Day 12 - Hangzhou

We caught a train at 9:00 AM to Hangzhou, transiting through Shanghai and arriving at around 2:00 in the afternoon.

As one travels from the center of China eastward, you note that the areas become more prosperous the closer you get to the eastern coast. The weather cooled a bit as well.

Soon after arrival, Justin and I walked to the West Lake. Shrouded in fir trees and framed by pagoda topped mountains in the background, it was more scenic than the lake in Nanjing. We found a very nice park right along the water.

We returned for dinner with the group. It was Anna's birthday. We walked along the lake and stopped at an Irish bar for drinks. Shirley tracked down a birthday cake and even a candle that played the "happy birthday" song (but we soon found that we did not know how to turn it off and it continued playing for about 15 minutes). It was Latin night at the bar, which Justin was not real thrilled with. It had started pouring rain while we were inside but Justin was willing to brave getting wet just to get out of there. There were about 30 people standing in the doorway waiting for a taxi but afraid to venture from the shelter of the eaves. Showing no such fear, Justin ran out to the road and had a cab for us in about 30 seconds.

Day 13 - Hangzhou

Left the hotel at 7:00 to take a group bike ride. The bikes we used were single speed machines that looked much newer than the ones we road in Nanjing. However, they were plagued by problems throughout the ride. Justin lost his breaks. One of Richard's pedals literally broke free and had to stop at a repair shop along the way. Nevertheless, ride was really nice. Hangzhou is easily the prettiest area we have visited so far. As we circled around the lake, we passed by a number of really nice gardens. We climbed a rock road into the hills, past local Longjing tea plantations. Workers were out in force picking the leaves for processing. The ride back went quickly, even with a break to wait out a short downpour.

After freshening up at the hotel, Richard, Natalie, Anna, Karen, Justin and I went to lunch at a Pizza Hut we had passed in our prior exploration of the city. We then went looking for a Bank of China to cash travelers checks. The first branch we visited directed us to the central branch. Generally speaking, the Bank of China was the only place where we could cash traveler's checks. Furthermore, in many cities like here, there was only one office that would do this (Xi'an had been an exception to this).

Justin and I took a taxi out to Lingyin Si (Temple of the Soul's Retreat). It supposedly houses a 60 foot Buddhist statue. However, we arrived late in the afternoon and were only able to tour the outlying grounds. They contained some very interesting caves and ancient cliff carvings. We were a little concerned when we left that we would not be able to find a taxi back to town. The Temple was located about 30 minutes from town and was pretty much deserted by the time we left (though there was still daylight). Fortunately, we only walked about 20 minutes before coming to a busy intersection where we found a cab pretty quickly.

I spent the evening in the internet bar sorting out visa documentation for my upcoming work assignment with Kirkland & Ellis London. The internet in China is something of a hit or miss proposition in China. On some days you could access certain web sites that were not available on other days. Perhaps this apparent randomness related in some way to the locations we were passing through. One of our guides mentioned that the Chinese government fairly regularly blocks access to sites, such as CNN, for varying lengths of time. Although, I was never sure if the connection challenges I encountered derived from intentional interference or simply less than optimal connections.

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