Hangzhou, China

Posted on January 9, 2008 by Sonya

Marco Polo once described Hangzhou as a city that was, beyond dispute, “the finest and the noblest in the world”. My dad, a great appreciator of Chinese history, had also spoken to us of Hangzhou’s beauty, culture and glorious history so it is safe to say we had high expectations of this city.

By the time we had left Shanghai, half of our group had completed their leg of the trip so it was just five of us remaining. I will never forget our taxi ride to the train station. We had underestimated the length of time it would take to get to the Shanghai Railway Station from our hotel and were blessed to have found a helpful, quick but sane taxi driver. We arrived at the station just in time, and gratefully tipped the stressed driver, who had given us all a lecture about allowing enough time to travel during Shanghai’s peak traffic.

The train ride from Shanghai to Hangzhou was fast, smooth and prompt. We arrived tired but were pleasantly surprised to find our hotel was comfortable and had internet access.

West Lake

Our first full day in Hangzhou was slightly disappointing. Our hotel was located very close to the famous West Lake so we planned to walk there and spend a day exploring the area. Much to our dismay, the city was suffering from extremely foggy weather and the lake was barely visible. Unwilling to declare defeat, we continued walking around the lake taking photos, hoping that the fog would subside, but it did not.

Travis and I walked around the city centre, as there was not much else we could do.

That night we had noodles and wandered around the city once again. We had an interesting time trying to communicate with a pharmacist whilst searching for Panadol. She had a tiny English-to-Chinese cheat sheet which had the symptoms written in English (e.g. sore head, tummy ache) and the corresponding Chinese medication next to it. Slightly concerned about the potential communication breakdown, we opted to continue looking.

My favourite part of the day was by far our visit to the night markets behind our hotel. I had curiously observed the hustle and bustle of the markets the night before from our room window. Turned out to be the best markets we had been to in China! There were a lot of brilliantly hand crafted goods, the standard designer bag, purse and keyring copies, and lots of kooky knick knacks. Plenty of locals around the place indicated that prices could be bargained to reasonable amounts.

Liuhe Pagoda (Six Harmonies Pagoda)

Travis and I decided that we would organise a driver to take us to a number of key sites during our second day. We organised it with our hotel, and agreed with the driver that he would take us to 3-4 places in 4 hours and then drop us off at the Hangzhou airport, all for RM300. Turned out to be a great deal.

Our first stop was the marvellous Liuhe Pagoda. We were literally the first tourists to arrive, and had the place to explore for ourselves. The pagoda faces the Qiantang River (which we could hardly see due to the persistent fog), and was constructed during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD) for navigational aid purposes for ships.

Tea Plantations and Longjing Tea (Dragon Well Tea)

We drove a good 20 minutes further to arrive at the famous tea plantations of Longjing. This region is said to produce some of the most famous, finest green tea in China and thus we decided we would sample some of this tea. Our driver brought us to what we hoped was the famous Dragon Well Teahouse.

I had brought along plenty tourist guides/brochures and my invaluable Lonely Planet which recommended tea tasting at the Dragon Well Teahouse, but the driver insisted that the Teahouse had long closed and the residential house which he had brought us to was now the infamous tea producing location of all of Hangzhou.

With much reluctance to try the tea, Travis and I sampled the Longjing tea provided to us by a lady. She pushed us to purchase RM500 worth of tea to bring back for our families. We resisted, stating the tea was not to our taste. We were unsure we were even drinking Longjing tea. After we expressed our frustration at being not brought to our desired Teahouse, and after she expressed her frustration of not being able to sell anything to us, we left the house. What an experience!

On the way out of the region we stopped at what appeared to be an old Teahouse village in renovation. We spent an hour exploring the village, taking photos and satisfying our tea desires.

Lingyin Temple

Next was the Lingyin Temple, a Buddhist temple famous for its religious rock carvings. This place was quite amazing, and we spent quite some time exploring the numerous caves filled with rock carvings dating back from the Song Dynasty. We also visited the Hall of the Heavenly Kings, the entrance of the Lingyin temple itself. The temple is one of the largest and wealthiest in China.

Leifeng Pagoda

With a bit of time up our sleeves, we decided to make a trip back to West Lake to visit the Leifeng Pagoda. Leifeng Pagoda is one of the ten sights of the West Lake and is famous for the Legend of the White Snake, a story of a scholar who falls in love with a beautiful woman, unaware she is a white snake. The white snake is cast into the Pagoda by a Taoist monk.

A popular tourist attraction, the Pagoda has been renovated to allow for escalators up to the Pagoda, and lifts inside it.

Despite the unfortunate weather, Hangzhou turned out to be an interesting experience and a fascinating place to visit. It would be lovely to visit again during the Spring.

Zhouzhuang, China

Posted on January 7, 2008 by Travis

Unsatisfied with Suzhou, the following day we made a day trip to Zhouzhuang. Like Suzhou, Zhouzhuang is a famous water town and also shares the name Venice of the East.
We purchased a tour tickets in Shanghai on a recommendation from our hotel, the tickets included bus ride and a few entry tickets for ¥140 per person. On arrival in Zhouzhuang we had lunch and tasted what we believe are some of the more traditional dishes; pork shoulder (Wansan Tipang), molluscs and an interesting cold chicken dish that none of us were game enough to try.

Chen Yifei and the Twin Bridge

The Twin Bridge. Consisting of Yong’an Bridge and Shide Bridge, is one of the historical monuments and cultural relics listed under the protection of Jiangsu Province.

Shen House

One of the attractions was Shen House; Shen House was the private property of the descendant of Shen Wansan, the first millionaire of Jiangnan. The interiors had various items which you could not touch; around the exterior were very beautiful gardens.

Boat ride along Zhouzhuang canals

The highlight of Zhouzhuang was the boat ride through the old town. We tipped the oarsman ¥20 to sing three songs during the ride.

Suzhou, China

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Travis

We made a day trip to Suzhou from Shanghai; Suzhou is only 45mins away from Shanghai by train. Suzhou is famous for its classical gardens which are listed as a World Heritage site.

Upon arrival, unsure of what to do and constantly being annoyed by tour operators, we decided to agree and go on a tour for ¥120 per person. The tour visited the following places:

Suzhou Calm Garden

Out of 9 Classical Gardens of Suzhou that make the World Heritage listing, the Suzhou Calm Garden is unfortunately not one. The garden was a slight disappointment; maybe due to visit during winter, the garden didn’t feel ‘lush’ enough. The entry to the garden included a tea tasting and boat ride down the river.

Boat ride on the Grand Canal

One nickname for Suzhou is Venice of the East, due to its similar buildings on the edge of the canals. However, pollution and rubbish make it look nowhere as appealing.

Fengqiao (Maple Bridge) and Hanshan Temple (Cold Mountain Temple)

Hanshan Temple is famous because of the poem A Night Mooring by Maple Bridge by poet Zhang Ji.

Silk and Pearls

With small tours it is quite common at the end to take the tourists to shops disguised as attractions in the hope they will buy something and hence the tour guides get a commission. And this tour was no different. The first stop was a silk factory; Suzhou is famous for its silk in China. The silk factory was quite interesting, I didn’t realise that each silkworm cocoon was unwound to produce raw silk thread; it is a very mechanical process. The second unknown destination took us to a pearl factory, which wasn’t at all interesting.

Suzhou city

At the end of the tour we had some free time to wonder around the city centre and view Suzhou at night. At night, the canals water reflected the buildings and light and the whole city didn’t look as dingy.

Shanghai, China

Posted on January 5, 2008 by Sonya

Shanghai is the eighth largest city in the world and the largest populated city in China, with over 18 million people in the metropolitan area. We arrived in Shanghai on the afternoon of January 3rd. It was much warmer than Beijing, but still slightly chilly. Whilst Shanghai was like any other big modern city, with its bright lights and endless shopping, we had fun exploring the main sites and wandering the streets.

Old Shanghai

Our first afternoon in Shanghai was spent in the old city of Shanghai. The main attraction here is the City God Temple, which was unfortunately closed for restoration. However the area had plenty of entertainment, including markets, shops, restaurants and tea houses. We lined up for half an hour to sample the famous xiaolongbao or soup dumplings at the Nanxiang Bun Shop, which were very tasty.

Science and Technology Museum and Maglev Train

The next morning Travis and I visited the Science and Technology Museum. It was huge, with 12 elaborate exhibits on a number of different levels. We spent the most time in the Robotics and Information Technology area, playing games with robots and sending encoded messages to each other.

Later, we decided we would take a ride on the Maglev train, the world’s first high speed commercial Maglev train in the world. After deciding 80RMB was a little dear for a one way train to the airport, we opted to visit the Maglev Museum.

Nanjing Road and The Bund

By now, we had all become acquainted with the very handy MRT train system. It was a very economical way to travel in a city which has extremely heavy traffic. Travis and I took the MRT to the People’s Square with the aim of visiting Nanjing Road. This is the main shopping district of Shanghai, and its atmosphere was very much the Shanghai I had pictured. Plenty of big, coloured bright lights, hundreds of people and lots of traffic. We walked around the Nanjing district, completely stricken by how much of a huge city Shanghai is.

By some amazing miracle we also managed to unexpectedly bump into some of our friends who had visited the zoo that day. We literally walked into them.

We all then walked to The Bund, a strip of historial buildings lining the Huangpu River which once housed the major financial institutions in China (before Communist China). The buildings were influenced by the British and French settlements in Shanghai.

That night the boys went out on a “Boy’s Night” and so us girls thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a “Girl’s Night Out” ourselves. We took a taxi to a road famous for its bars, Xintiandi. After exploring a few of the small bars, we ended up having a boogie at a dance club located in a shopping mall, Club G+. It was a lot of fun!

Orient Pearl Tower and Pudong

The following morning, Travis and I decided to explore The Bund and Huanpu river by day and then catch a ferry over to the new Shanghai, Pudong area. It appeared there was some kind of “tourist tunnel” which allowed you to get to the other side so we thought we’d check that out. After parting with RMB40 per person, we were inside a small glass train (which fit no more than ten people) travelling through what looked to be some sort of underground rave tunnel. It was far from worthy of being one of Shanghai’s top ten must-sees, but it was good for a laugh.

We reached Pudong and decided to climb the Orient Pearl Tower to view of Shanghai from above. It is the highest building in Asia. Whilst we paid for tickets to ascend to the the highest level, it was rather pointless as the city is so smoggy that the extra few metres made little difference. From above however, the view clarified how large a city Shanghai is.

Sonya and Travis

tales of travel and adventure

Category Archives: China