A pleasant walk along the lake; Hangzhou

Photo: West lake at Hangzhou, China - 11/11/10

In China it is very easy to rent bicycles, and this way of transport is promoted quite a lot to the tourists. After a good night of sleep in the hostel next to the west lake, I decided to go and rent a bike and cycle around town. It's quite a place, and most of the points of interests are spread around the city and the lake. Also I was told by some tourists that it's impossible to go around the lake in 1 day and especially by foot, since it is more than a 10k to get around.

Photo: Beautiful autumn trees - Hangzhou, China - 11/11/10

The day before while walking to the hostel on please autumn tree-lined road, I saw a few bike rental places along the streets; those places also being used by locals who own a chip card, press it against a chip card reader and one of the bicycles is being unlocked. I noticed as well that each rental place had a little information point and with a bit of luck they rent out bikes to tourists....unfortunately at every bicycle rental place I came across along the streets, the information points were closed....perhaps I was too early as yesterday afternoon they were all open. Or was it perhaps a Sunday? I lost count. At the same time on Sunday people would go out on the bicycle right?
Anyway I kept walking further along to lake to find a rental place, until I decided I was already too far away from the hostel and it would not be convenient to rent a bike so far away from the hostel and walk back again. And actually I was enjoying this walk along the lake!




I kept walking along with the big lake on my left side. Every spot was different and every moment I enjoyed something; the nature, the locals and the Chinese tourists, the many photographers and coffee-houses, the scenery and simply the happy life around me. I was in China, and I was reminded to that every moment of my stay.

Photo: The Chinese love to pose for a photo - 11/11/10

Photo: Card and chess games everywhere - Hangzhou, China - 11/11/10

On the north side of the lake, across the modern street - which reminded me of walking in Central Park in New York City - I spotted an entrance to a temple and a little garden I thought. So I entered the garden to see what it was. First walking past little wooden buildings in the typical Chinese style, then completely in the back stairs going up with two red pointed characters painted on the wall behind in the size of a human being. Up the stairs the little garden turned out a park with walking paths in different directions. I turned right first as I thought that to be the beginning where I came to a place with a pond, many trees and more Chinese wooden and concrete houses.





I might have spend about an hour walking over the small footpaths going left and right and up the hill and down again. I hardy met anyone, and with the many trees and leafs blocking the sun shines, it was already getting slightly darker, increasing the atmosphere. What looked like a small garden were hills with many paths and houses and temples and statues, some cafes and places to eat, a museum and loads of nature. I realized that I was happy accidentally finding this place.

I had already decided to complete my walk all around the lake, as I already arrived on the north side of the lake, and walking all around would only slightly increase the length. While time was ticking, I tried to follow the path to the exit - which turned out to be separated from the entrance - not knowing how large this park was, and when I would reach the exit. I was still quite high on this hill, but I found some stairs going down quite steep. More little corners and areas to sit down and little tea places, but I the exit was reached soon, and I could continue my walk along the lake, over road on top of a sort of dam crossing the lake from east to west, passing a few islands on the left.

On the west side of the lake I had to follow the road for a bit as the road was close to the lake, but the lake turned left wards and the road kept going straight so I tried to find a way to get back to the lake. I decided to enter a road which could lead to the lake via an expensive hotel or restaurant. I reached an entrance with a guard in police uniform standing on top of a wooden block. When I noticed me approaching the entrance, the guard pressed him self into the official position by squeezing all his muscles straight and making a loud clicking sound by clapping his heels. At the same time with his right arm this guard made a salute. Stood still for 2 seconds, made a little jump a few centimeters into the air with a 90 degrees turn so he would be facing my on his landing with his boots returning loudly on the wooden platform. Right after he raised his right hand forward with a 'stop' sign.
I understood the message, and still surprised of what just happened, I turned around and made my way backwards to the main road.

A few hundred meters further, after passing the big and well lit Pagoda, I found my way back to the lake, and soon I would be arriving back at the hostel, but first I had to take a photo of the beautiful Pagoda, build on the foot of the mountains, surrounding Hangzhou.

Photo: Brightly lit Pagoda of Hangzhou, China - 11/11/10

The next day it was time to catch a day-train instead. A high-speed train meaning I would travel with 200km/h in daylight, allowing me to see a bit of the country side and towns crossing on the way. A 2 hour high speed journey to Shaoxing for about 6 Euros.