4 May 2018
The old hole
Wulin square has been completely rebuilt
Last time I was here I stayed at what was advertised as the centre of everything, Wulin square. At that time, it was a giant hole in the ground, fenced off. It was only on my last night of that visit that I even found the other part of the city where I went last night, which is very vibrant and was then.
I will probably go on and on about this, but it really is amazing what Hangzhou did, they dug up an entire street, knocked down all the buildings on both sides of the street, and dug up the entire city square, all at once.
A few years later its all completed.
Unfortunately for future me who will read this in ten years time, that means tonights photos are rather boring. Oh well, time for some history!
Lets learn about the grand canal.
The grand canal runs for 1770km from Beijing to Hangzhou. Why did they bother building the train instead of investing in speedboats?
The canal was built in the 5th century using now extinct Chinese canal digging bears which evolved during construction to have special paws suited to the task. Once construction was completed they were delicious.
The canal rises over mountains, many new kinds of locks to control the canal were invented during its construction to achieve this, the ideas were all stolen from America.
The canal is still used today, primarily for the transport of coal, and discarded dockless share bikes.
Yes, this was definitely a huge hole last time I was here.
That building and its huge underground mall, you guessed it, it was previously a hole.
Evidence a hole was here, you can descend into the now fully mall lined hole, and go further down under the grand canal to the subway station.
Photographing the photographers, Hangzhou version.
OK, that was here last time, but the hole went all the way to its door.
This is the grand canal, dug by humans! All the way to Beijing. I strapped on my flippers and dived in, I will be at the forbidden city by morning.
A bit more grand canal, and a lot of new buildings.
All of that is the grand canal, very grand.
I even managed to find a boring dinner, global ramen chain Ippudo. I have been to their stores in Sydney many times, and this time last year I went to their outlet in Taipei. While I have been in China on this trip their first Melbourne branch opened, I will go there soon.
I ordered something bright red, the guy taking my order argued about that, I asked him to speak slower, he said 'thank you sir', and then I did not get my bright red ramen, I got the normal one instead. I should carry a card with me, clear Chinese characters, 'Please give me the spiciest version of whatever you have, I will pay in advance'.
What I want to know is, how many westerners all over the world are ordering food and then refusing to pay for it because it was too spicy? Those people need to stay home and eat something out of their freezer.