Hangzhou

There is a popular saying in China: "Above there is heaven, below there are Hangzhou and Suzhou." I had already been to Suzhou and now it was Hangzhou. I was supposed to go last week but I did not get tickets and I did not want to travel by bus. So this weekend I got my super fast train ticket for the round trip. My plan was to come back on the same day. Now a days I am reluctant to get up early in the morning. But then can’t have that luxury all the time. I got ready pretty fast and left to Shanghai South Railway station. Man this station is a miniature model of the Suwarnabhumi airport in Bangkok but a lot better. Round in shape and well maintained. You won’t feel like you are going to catch a train. I like the system here you need to check in at least 5 min before the train leaves. They don’t allow you to enter the platform until the train is ready. Once it is all ready to go, usually 15min before the departure time they open the gates, check the tickets and let you in. After you board the train there is no one bothering you to show your ticket. And once the train leaves there aren’t any relative waving at you. Cool an!! Well when I got inside the train man it was more than economy class. The leg space was so much that I could spread my legs to its length and sleep comfortably. The trains are so well maintained and the cost to travel is also lea 50RMB to my destination that is Hangzhou. He takes 1Hr 20Min to cover the distance between Shanghai and Hangzhou at an average speed of 100Km/hr.
When I reached Hangzhou, it was raining and I was feeling bad about it. I wanted it to be bright and sunny day but I guess I was not granted that. I took the taxi to my first destination of the day Ling Yin Si (Ling Yin Temple). The taxis are like in Shanghai well organized. On my way I had my breakfast in the taxi. It took me a long drive to reach the place. First need to cross the city and suddenly you are in the middle of a green cover. Whoa forget Ooty this place rules. It was so beautiful and green all over. You need to but a ticket to get in to the temple rather two tickets. I was some what puzzled why twice. The temple is inside a compound and again inside you need to buy ticket to see the temple. I got lost in finding the entrance; the directions were kind of misguiding me. Finally I got to know where the entrance and temple is. When I went in there were lots of trees and rocks. The rocks had the carvings of Buddha and Buddhism. All over the place you can find that. There was a small stream also flowing inside the place adding to beauty. There were some caves also and I went inside them. There also there were some sculptures. Then finally I got to see the temple. Man that was by far the tallest and largest structure that I had seen so far, it was mind blowing. Inside there a huge a very huge splendid statue of Buddha in golden colour. You can spend half and hour here. After that I wanted to see The Peak flow from Afar (Beng Ji). Legend has it that this large piece of rock flew from India, crossed the Himalayas and landed here. I thought the rock is at the top of a hill and started climbing it. Phew it was a steep climb for about 20 min. When I reached the top, damn what there was nothing? So I came down to see that the rock was same as the one that I had initially seen. But then it was fun to climb the hill. After a long time doing trekking. A good exercise and my legs were cursing me, h ah ah ha ha.
My next destination was the Six Harmonies Pagoda. I took the taxi to reach the place. The pagoda is a tall tower. The architecture is kind of different. There is nothing much to see here apart from climbing the Pagoda. It is about 13 floors high and you can go up all the way by foot. Damn this climb was killing me. The stairs were not normal. They were spiral and steep too. When you reach the top the view from there is breathe taking. You can see the river and the hills and the forest. It was a cloudy day and could not see far from there. My next destination was the Song City. This place is a replica of the Song Dynasty. You can see the culture, people, buildings and everything that was there in that period. There is also a food street selling I suppose food that belongs to that era. I had one snack that was like a stuffed puri. The stuff inside had some meat and I don’t know which one but ate it. It was very tasty too. There was another dish that was like a roti but I did not want to have that as my plans for lunch was entirely different. While roaming around there were a couple of Chinese tourists who were taking some snaps and when they saw me they wanted to take a photo with me. One after the other, they were just excited about it. Then I went and sat for some time near an artificial lake. There a kid had dressed up in a song soldier costume. I took a snap of him. You get costumes that you can hire and sport them. While I was relaxing the drums started playing and there was a show at the main entrance. It was an acrobatic show. The artists were standing on a stick on both the legs and were performing a wide range of tricks. It was a nice show that they put up. This place is good for children as they can see their history and also have fun. I was done with this place and now was the last and most talked about destination Xi hu (West Lake).
All I knew about this place was that it was a huge lake and you can spend the entire day here. That was true; it was such a huge lake. I could only see water as far I could see. There are a lot of gardens on this lake and on its shore. There are three islands also on this lake. You can take a boat or ferry and go to them. I was not willing to do that, I was more interested in having a beer and some good food on the shore and kill time. But the place I got down was on the other end of the city/lake and there was not such luxury as I had anticipated. So I was walking and looking for the restaurant and then I finally figured out that I have to get to the other end of the lake. So I hopped on a ferry who would take me to two islands and then to the city. I t was a good deal. So there I was in a ferry on the lake cruising along and enjoying the beauty. The islands that I went on did not have much to see. Some gardens and some smaller lakes on it. When I kept my foot on the city the time was not permitting to look for a hotel on the shore. I had to catch the train back to shanghai at 5:20PM and now it was already 4:00PM. I was also concerned about the time to travel to the station as in the morning it had taken me almost half an hour. So fast food was my only option and landed up eating a Fish Fillet in Mac Donald’s. Actually the city side is very posch. Somewhat like shanghai. Then I took a taxi back to the railway station which was just 10 min away and I was back in Shanghai in 2 hours.
http://www.chinahighlights.com/hangzhou/attraction/