Hangzhou

What happened to the weather?? It just seems to be getting colder and wetter by the day meaning our plans are changing as quickly and as often as the weather forecast at the moment. It seems daft to head for our next intended destination of Huangshan and climb a mountain that is generally covered in cloud on a good day so when the weather is complete rubbish the thought of climbing a mountain in the rain to see nothing doesn’t appeal… sorry to those hardened trekkers bought up in the Scottish highlands, I’m sure there is a word for fair weather trekkers like us – other than sensible! So this meant that from Zhangjiajie we headed to the city of Hangzhou instead by overnight train, still suffering from the colds gained on the last train journey – or is that the sudden drop in temperature! We had the pleasure of sharing our compartment and most of the train carriage with a tour group of overexcitable 70 year old women. They ate their way through about 40 chickens worth of chicken feet and more sweets than your average Worthers Original sucking old should eat. Come 4 in the morning those E numbers must have kicked in as they were wide awake, laughing, chatting and keeping the rest of us awake! Even Shona was heard to swear and seen to give evil looks at them as she couldn’t get back to sleep.
As is the case with most Chinese cities what you first see isn’t pretty, huge industrial area followed by lines of tower blocks and skyscrapers but get to the heart of Hangzhou and it is the most beautiful city we have visited. The west lake area, as the name suggests, is set round a stunning lake and is surrounded by gardens, pagoda’s, willow tree lined paths, bridges and lots of opportunities to walk, making this place a good place to spend a few days – even if on your first day it barely stopped raining and was about 2 degrees! So this meant mainly hiding out in cafes and shops, but it was still pretty cool – cool being quite apt as it seems the Chinese rich and wealthly flock here and they are as hip and stylish as they come. I fitted in so well in my knackered and dirty combat shorts (yep, even in 2 degrees I still refused to take them off), football socks and rain jacket – they’ll all be dressed like it soon, its European chic. Over the next few days the weather was meant to get better so we decided instead of wasting a good day sitting on a train we’d spend an extra one or two here and explore properly. So we spent our time wandering around the lake and exploring the many gardens, went out and walked through some tea plantations in the surrounding hills and generally just had a chilled time. It is a very picturesque setting and it seems that it is either wedding season in China or there is a huge demand for wedding photos! Hundreds of photographers and make up artists were wandering around the lake for that great shot while a young couple dressed up like a penguin and a meringue in a big fancy white dress trapesing behind them! Guessing western style wedding are all the rage here now!