3 May 2018
And now for the view
City God pavilion of Hangzhou
Hangzhou was nice the last time I came here, apart from the areas that were huge muddy holes in the ground with all the buildings removed on both sides of the main road due to the subway construction. Just about all of that construction is now completed, and just like the rest of China, Hangzhou has become much much nicer.
It is almost like you arent in China, assuming you stick to the lake and surrounding streets. This might annoy some people and if it were to be the only place you visited in China, you would go away with a weird impression of the country.
It is however a very beautiful place, and very deserving of its reputation as domestic tourists favourite location in all of China.
I even saw some western tourists, by western I think I mean Eastern European, who are probably from much less developed places than the scariest places in China. As always, they come to buy up big on Guuci and Rolex, rewards for whatever horrible things they have done in their poor countries to get super rich.
Unfortunately I now have a terrible cough as a result of my cold, it is very very annoying, and at its worst while I am sitting here typing, so less typing unti my cough gets better. Brace yourself for the view.
With such a clear day I thought I better run down to the West Lake to capture the suset. It was worth the effort even though I plan to go there again tomorrow.
I have climbed up that hill before, on a very grey day.
It looks very far, its really not that far.
There are lots and lots of similar boats that fill the lake on the weekends.
Dont be alarmed, its just me photographing the photographers again. They were very very happy with the day they had picked.
I ran all the way up a different hill to a place I had not been to before, the temple of god. You have to pay about $5 to get in to see the view, worth it I think.
Unlike much of China, all these hills are filled with walking trails, some are actual trails too, not just gift shop lined concrete paths.
If you squint you can see another pagoda on a hill.
Hangzhou is another city of about 10 million, growing fast and has a reputation as a rich persons city. Alibaba and a few other tech companies are based here.
The new city with the newer sky scrapers is not in view, even without them it is still a nice looking city.
Decent photo me thinks.
I descended one level where the roof wasnt getting in the way, a bit late for the sun but it did allow me to do a couple of longer exposures resting my camera on the railing.
Lake and lit up pagoda.
Because of all the fantastic trees it is almost impossible to get a photo of the temple of heaven, this is the best I could do. Wedding photography going on in front of it of course.
Now it was time to descend the hill into the huge area of pedestrian shopping streets. This has been gentrified a lot since I was last here, and grown. Gentrification has some benefits - I distinctly remember charging around urgently looking for a place to urinate last time I was here, this time, toilets everywhere.
Even the things on sticks stores looks very neat and tidy.
Through this rainbow archway, a traditional Chinese restaurant. Strange.
There really are a lot of streets and alleyways all done up like this. In todays world of walking along reading your phone, I wonder how many people have fallen into the water?
As the official area ends and the scooters return, an unofficial extension has evolved with shops on wheels blocking entire streets.
I found a popular place for dinner, sat at a bar, decided to not have beef noddle soup. This was labeled as exotic sirloin with pickled vegetables on rice. The description was apt. I added a lot of chilli. Photo not focused properly unfortunately.
How is the electricity bill? Imagine living over the road from this, its blinding brilliant white, then red, then it goes black, then it strobes.
I thought I was going to head straight back to my hotel, but a convenient overpass gave me an opportunity to spot some more shiny lights. None of this was here last time I was here, it was just a huge hole up the middle of Hangzhou.
This took me into a huge modern mall called the Kerry Centre.
Basement 2 of the Kerry centre had an Ole! improted goods supermarket. Time to indulge in some more expensive fruit salad.