Howard Johnson Oriental Hangzhou

... took pictures with us. It was interesting to compare the intimate setting of this garden with the sprawling complex of the Summer Palace. Denise had a great time taking pictures in the garden, as I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ll be able to see in the gallery with this blog.<br><br>After a sub-standard buffet lunch, we headed to the Embroidery Institute to see Chinese Embroidery. I didn&#8217;t think there would be much ...

... been the highlight. Sadly, the three hour bus ride required to get there was not. The area is kind of reminiscent of Vancouver or Kelowna, the air seems fresher and the water is very clean. While in Qiandao, we visited two highly irrational islands stocked with poorly treated, imported exotic animals. The first island displayed several pits containing cobras and other venomous snakes, the other housed a farm of ostriches. Neither ...

... in the next afternoon and spoke to family about arrangements"reflective, determined"<br><br>Sat: <br>waiting on my certificate from Hangzhou, making copies of all the documents before packing them away to be picked up in the afternoon. spoke to family "focused, determined"<br><br>Sun: <br>"anxious, reflective"<br><br>Mon: <br>waiting for it to get to NZ "reflective, relaxed"<br><br>Tues:<br>waiting for it to get to NZ "relaxed"<br><br>Wed:<br ...

... told us it was an half an hour journey. We arrived at the hostel at about 12.30pm. Immediately after doing the usual arrival stuff (checking in and dumping our bags) we headed out for food and to have a look at the lake.<br><br>It didn't disappoint! The lake really was beautiful. So odd to find such a beautiful landscape tucked between the high rises and pollution of the city. We could already tell, despite it being a city, that the pace in Hangzhou was much slower than ...

... with my mom and brother. It&#8217;s been neat to meet relatives that otherwise we would not meet. We&#8217;re headed to my mom&#8217;s parents&#8217; hometown next. She calls it the &#8220;countryside&#8221;, Qing Tian. It now has over 100,000 people living there (which is a relatively small town for China). <br><br>Jacob seems to have become more inspired to learn Chinese. We impressed on him that we ...

... br><br>After lunch we journeyed onto the West Lake area and a cruise on the lake. West Lake covers over 8 square kilometres and is situated at the heart of Hangzhou. Originally the lake was an inlet off the estuary of the Qiantang River, becoming a lake when the river began to silt up in the 4th century. The lake had a tendency to flood, so several dykes were ...

Departed Suzhou at 9am for a 2 and a half hour drive to Hangzhou, we said goodbye to Grace our Local Guide for the past two days but we keep our driver Mr John. On arrival we meet our new Guide Rain and we are taken to the restaurant for lunch, then onto a local market area where we visited some Chinese medicine shops and an art gallery with bronze sculptures.<br>Arrived at the Hotel at 2pm and did nothing much, went walking and later found a Subway so that was dinner.

... It is<br>probably the most beautiful park that I have ever seen with carefully manicured lush vegetation, many kilometers of walking paths along the lake side, small bridges to pose for a picture and mini pagodas to sit and relax. It's pretty hard to describe how amazingly beautiful the lake is and the park that rings the entire lake. The lake probably has a circumference of about 20 km. You can walk the entire distance around if you are feeling up ...

... The crazy monk managed to get a wealthy landowner to agree to give him all the wood that he could cover with his cloak. Thinking this would only be a tree or two the landowner agreed. When the monk threw his cloak in the air it grew to an enormous size and covered the whole forest. He then used the fish, crabs and shrimp to carry the wood through the underground spring to the monastery's well, arriving just in time to meet the deadline. After a visit to a tea ...

... I found my seat. And surprisingly it was a very comfortable ride. I had a window seat and it was good :) Hangzhou is not just beautiful... but really beautiful. And very modern (for China). West Lake is stunning and my hotel is a few meters away from it. I noticed that there are a lot of young people here. And I feel more like a movie star here than in any other city to date. The locals are super friendly and want to take pictures with you and practice ...