The West Lake in Hangzhou

July 20th-22nd

After typical travel stress…getting out of the train station, finding the city bus stop, trying to figure out how much to actually pay, getting off on the right (unmarked stop), and then finding the right street with minimal directions…we finally found Hefang International Youth Hostel in Hangzhou. It was double what we have been paying (about $20 a night) for other places as this one charged by person rather than room. Even so, it has been my (A’s) favorite so far. The room was loft style, but painted a cheery blue, with dark wood accents. The bathroom was gorgeous with an Asian inspired above the counter bowl sink and actually had a separate stall for showering. 

This is an exception as most hostels and many hotels in Asia have a dual shower/toilet area. This means you can actually sit on the toilet and take a shower at the same time if you had the fancy. Add in the all-tile room and fluorescent lights and it would make the perfect setting for a horror movie. The room was actually so comfortable we decided to take a “heat of the day” nap and recover from out night out with Jon. We slept until 4 pm!

We headed out of the hostel to get a look around and perhaps try to see the sunset over the West Lake. On our way down our alley we stumbled onto the Traditional Chinese Medicine center and museum. It was in a beautiful old building with ornate wood carvings, open ceilings and tons of traditional supplies that seemed to be separated into sections depending on if you needed herbs, pills, etc.  Chinese people were coming and going picking up the medicinal supplies they needed from the white coated workers. Other customers, myself (A) included, relaxed on the benches while sipping on some hot tea that was sitting out for us. In order to cool the tea off more quickly some large ice blocks were set out in silver bowls for you to set your paper cup on. I (A) drank the tea in hopes that it would help with the stomach issues I had been having, alas it did not. 

I (Pearce) spent some time in the commercial area of the medicine center taking pictures and went into the adjacent museum of traditional Chinese medicine. Unfortunately half of the museum was closed for renovation but also half priced tickets.  I convinced Allyson it was worth it and she joined me.  We saw a collection of tools used to process the natural plants and animals used to make the remedies.  We saw aisles of jars of various plants, flowers and even bizarre animals including geckos, rhinoceros tusks, scorpions and many more.  It was very interesting for me as some of the remedies were listed for controlling convulsions as epilepsy is my area of research interest. 

After the tour we headed down Hefang street towards the lake. The street reminds me of what you would think of old china market street would be, but with a tourist slant. Instead of fruits and vegetables, you can buy silk fans and chops (personalized stamps). The street was packed with Chinese tourists so we moved our way through the crowd pretty quickly to get to the lake. At the end of Hefang street we ran directly into the outskirts of the huge lake. Marco Polo once called the city, “the most beautiful in the world” and I imagine he did so largely because of the lake.

Since it was later in the day we decided to tackle the southeastern portion. The city has done a great job of creating a continuous park around the lake that is beautifully landscaped, but also provides various activities including watercraft, tea houses and even feeding the squirrels. I (A) kid you not, people were gathering en masse to feed squirrels nuts. Pearce and I got a kick out of thinking how they would love our yard! 

 

For dinner we decided to find the Night Food market, but first made a detour to stop at a hair salon for Pearce.  Major language barrier here.  Also I think Asian people don’t often get the chance to cut a thick mane of red-auburn hair.  I wasn’t sure what I was getting into but they gave me a very thorough service with a shampoo-ing both before and after the cut.  They spent a lot of time on it and it cost less than a Supercuts back home.  And I didn’t have to listen to the same sob story my person tells me every time I get a cut in Atlanta.  After my hair maintenance Allyson and I walked back towards Hefang Street via the town’s main sqaure, Wushan Square.  It is plain concrete plaza that marks the end of the tourist area with what I would call a tourist exclamation point in the form a Dairy Queen.  In this square we saw something that surprised us then, but have seen once more already and I imagine will see again in China.  There were more than a hundred Chinese women and a few men doing highly organized and one wonders if “state” organized line dancing.  Yes, apparently a regularly scheduled line dance occurs nightly to promote exercise and presumably harmony among the people.  This was amidst an impromptu roller rink with children and several kite flyers, whose kites could only been seen by virtue of the attached lighting.

The night food market was amazing and so far the best Chinese food we had on our trip. We basically treated it as one long buffet sampling this and that as we walked down, of course like most things we have eaten in China we have no actual idea of what we are eating. My favorite was what I (A) like to think of as a Chinese pulled pork sandwich (I ate in in honor of you, mom) and for Pearce was a Sichuan noodle dish where he got to pick out all the ingredients and somehow managed to get him sweating more than he was before.  It was delicious and so far has been my (P) favorite dish in China.

        

The next morning we slept in due to the comfy cave-like nature of our room. We headed back down towards the lake to try to make it all the way around. Unfortunately the day was hot and hazy and although we made it around 3/4 of the lake we eventually gave up walking for a “pleasure” boat ride. It was pleasurable to get off our feet and in some air conditioning and to see the lake from a different vantage point. We even were able to get off and see one of the  many islands that are in the lake. Even despite the haze it was very easy to see why so many Chinese flock to this beautiful area.

        

After out lake venture we decided to escape the heat and do happy hour at one of the many Western bars along Nangang Road that runs along the side of the Lake. There we drank $1.50 beers with a Swiss guy, named Lucas, who was on a year long voyage he just started (after having done one two years ago). He was full of good tips on travel through both China and the rest of Southeast Asia. 

After getting nicely refreshed we headed back to the Night food market because we thought nothing could go better with beer than street food! We decided to try a new stall which included picking a bunch of different vegetables, meats and spices to make a stir fry, or so we thought. With the women’s urging I (A) order a ton of different things and then sat behind the stall at a little plastic table with chairs next to two young Chinese men. They were very friendly and offered us some of their beer and some of their food. It was when I studied their food I realized I may have ordered in error. Rather than one big stir-fry with a little of each, it seemed that each dish was brought out separately with a lot in each. This was confirmed in short order when item by item each dish was brought out piled high in its own container. Luckily, after a ridiculous amount of food, most of which would could not possible finish, it still only came out to like $15 and provided a lot of amusement of us and I am sure the Chinese around us as well.

The next morning we did some quick shopping and then headed back to Shanghai where we had to stay for one night before our big trek South. As we won’t be in a big city again for awhile we decided to hit up a Chinese movie theater. We tracked one down at the end of East Najing street in a big high rise building. We had to preorder our tickets which came with actual seat numbers. 

We then had a few hours to kill so we found a tiny little Chinese café where we had dumplings, soup and greens. We had a dinner date too. There was a café cat that hung around Pearce looking for him to throw some dumplings to eat. He must have known I wouldn’t dare share a delicious dumping with him! The movie experience was quite interesting, culturally speaking. the actual movie, Transformer 3 in 3D was crap. It was a very big theater, with each person having their own seat. They also allow food, but it is not candy like we have but actual dinner food, like chicken wings and garlic bread and beef jerky! They also have movie previews which people talked through, but what was really surprising was they kept talking throughout the whole movie. Part of it was about the movie, like in reaction, but part of it had nothing to do with the movie. For instance, the girl next to me answered her phone and talked on it sitting right next to me. Another interesting thing was at an especially intense part the whole audience started making a hissing sound. If someone out there knows what that was, please educate us!

For me (P), Hangzhou was second only to the Great Wall of China so far in our travels.  It had come as a recommendation from my colleague who is from here and says, like Marco Polo, that it is the best in China and the world.  I can see now why both Marco and my friend Tao think so.  This place with the lake is really something hard to capture with words and images and should be a part of anyone’s itinerary in China.

The next day was our train travel day, but that is a post of an entirely different color!