The brimming waves delight the eye on sunny days.
The dimming hills give a rare view in rainy haze.
The West Lake looks like the fair lady at her best.
Whether she is richly adorned or plainly dressed.
By Su Dongpo (Song Dynasty)
The dimming hills give a rare view in rainy haze.
The West Lake looks like the fair lady at her best.
Whether she is richly adorned or plainly dressed.
By Su Dongpo (Song Dynasty)
Marco Polo once called Hangzhou, “the most beautiful and magnificent city in the world”.
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Above are just some of the glowing descriptions you will find on the web when one Googles for Hangzhou.
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We arrived in Hangzhou during the peak after office hour rush. The first taxi we hailed didn't want to take us to where our hotel was located stating traffic congestion in that area.
You cannot imagine the number of people and vehicles on the street outside the railway station. With the engine smog, vehicles zooming past, people rushing by & the sun beating down on us, we finally found a taxi that would take us......for a hefty sum of RMB60! We later found out that our hotel wasn't that far away.....so I guess we've been had.....but at that time, we were willing to pay the sum just to get away from the chaos & the stifling heat!
During the taxi ride, the driver asked us why we chose to put up at Crystal Orange Hotel? He said it was way out of the areas of interest in Hangzhou. He made it sound as though we had booked ourselves into a hotel wayyyyyy out of the tourist path. Again, we found out later that our hotel was just as strategic as any other, depending on what one wanted to see of course. And our aim was to visit the West Lake. This was just 5-10 mins walking distance from where we lived. I shouldn't have doubted my choice as I'd done considerable research online before booking our accommodations.
Allan asked him how much he would charge us for when we needed to get to the airport the day after. He replied: RMB150. The hotel ordered a cab for us on the day of our departure. The cab fare to the airport came to only RMB94!
Crystal Orange Hotel (that's Soo walking towards the entrance)
View from Soo's balcony.
Aaahhhh.....this is the life! lol :)
By the time we had checked in, it was past 6pm. We agreed to meet up again at 8. Meantime, I took a shower & rested. The room was clean, comfortably spacious & the bathroom had both a shower & a long bath. A glass wall separated the bathroom from the sleeping area so one could watch television while chilling in the long bath. Or one could choose to pull down the shades for some privacy to complete one's toilette. ;)
View of the bathroom through the glass window, from the sleeping area
I read through my print out of places to visit in Hangzhou under subtitles like Dining.... Shopping..... Sight-seeing.... etc and focused on Shopping!, what else? haha
There's a night market along Yan'an Rd opened every night and a good place to get local stuff. The write-up warned that the prices there are marked up, up to 3 times for foreigners & 2 times even if you have a local Hangzhou friend with you.
We planned to pay the street a visit after dinner. The hotel concierge told us that we could get some local cuisine at He Fang Jie, and he gave us directions how to get there. It was close enough to get there on our own bipeds, so we walked & took in the night scene along the way.
Upon approaching our destination, we heard music and saw lights that hinted at an exciting treat up ahead. Our interest piqued, we quickened our pace.
We rounded a corner & right ahead of us was a square (from where the music was coming) & people dancing!..... line dancing! How fabulous! They weren't doing any line dances that we knew but the steps were familiar.....shuffles, back rock, forward rock, coaster steps.....it was line dancing! And there were at least 300 people in that square.
Line Dancing in Hangzhou. The 'toot toot' you hear at the end of the clip
is a motorcyclist signaling me to move out of her way :)
Name of the square I think.
Stalls along the street leading to He Fang Jie
Beyond the square was He Fang Jie (河坊街), a popular tourist spot. The entire stretch of road has old chinese architecture on both sides, housing various shops selling souvenirs, silk apparels, loong jeng tea (dragon well tea), snacks, etc. We were so taken in by the cultural atmosphere & promise of discoveries that we totally gave up on going to the Yan'an night market.
This street is also well-known for it's local snacks, so we headed to a food court in search of our dinner.
Entrance to the food court
This young lady was outside the foodcourt promoting the place
Stalls along the perimeter & in the centre selling their snacks.
It was very stuffy in the food court. Some local men had their T-shirts
rolled all the way to their chests exposing their big bellies :)
Samples of what we ate
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an artisan at work, sugar sculpting
his creations
In old China, there being no clocks, people were told the time by a man such as this one.
He walks through the dark streets, holding a lantern for light,
clanging on his 'cymbal' and shouts out the time, every hour, on the hour.
How does he know what time it is? You'll have to ask him :)
Another artisan at work, weaving leaves into beautiful creations
Animals & mythical creatures woven from leaves
A typical chinese medical hall
A shop selling 'dragon beard' candy
A man hammering on part of the ingredient that goes into the candy
A side street
Another type of candy. Very sweet & hard.
Glass blower
Lovely facade of a restaurant
Some typical local snacks.
They even have a dish consisting of nothing but the goose's head.
Nice gazebo
A tea house
Get one's photo taken, in costume!
What an interesting evening we've had. So glad to have 'accidentally' discovered this place. I think we'll be back for more before we leave Hangzhou.
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