Zhejiang Bin Guan Hangzhou

The Holiday Inn in Beijing had one great amenity: free internet. Other than that, it wasn't anything like our stay at the Crowne Plaza in Beijing. The beds were smaller, the pillows lumpier, and the breakfast was a poor imitation of the varied and delicious spread in Beijing. In short, it was a lot more what we are used to when we travel!<br><br>The first stop of the day was at the silk factory to see how silk ...

... Chinese are coming to terms with the fact that I probably won't be singing for them any time soon. The only problem was that they just would not. stop. singing. Five hours of insanely sappy pop tunes and videos coupled with unrelenting enthusiasm and god awful 2% beer was not what I had in mind after the previous night's bai jiu-fueled antics. I'm sorry but if we're going to Karaoke for five straight hours, 2% just isn't gonna cut ...

... The Chinese call it Heaven on Earth.<br><br>Our journey got off to a fantastic start: We found our seats on the fast train (China has a great system of bullet trains which go almost everywhere)... we were in 1st class! Whoop! Granted it was a mere 2 hour journey, the shortest yet, but we were still very pleased!!!<br><br>When we arrived in to Hangzhou station we did the usual method of following the hoards to find the exit and found ourselves in an intimidating, bustling ...

... s craftsmanship blew me away. It is obvious this is a very rich temple, and that they spend their money on the temple. The temple's buildings were amazingly maintained. I thought this was a great site. <br><br><br><br>Ticket Price: <br>35rmb <br>Time Needed: <br>1-1.5 hours <br>Hours of Operation: <br>5:00-6:00 <br>Location: <br>In the suburbs of Hangzhou <br><br>

... including the Bai and Su Causeways.<br><br>Our next stop was the Six Harmonies Pagoda, first built in 970 AD to placate the tidal bore, a massive wall of water that rushes upstream during high tide. Over 60 metres high, it served as a lighthouse up until the Ming Dynasty.<br><br>Our Guide next takes us to a freshwater pearl shop before dropping us back at the Hotel.

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.

... pelting rain that cools you down a little and leaves you feeling like a wet cat. And there is lots to laugh about here too.<br><br>Al was trying to make his way in China, this is his story. I was standing in line to get tickets to take a boat to an island on the lake. There was one person in front of me at the ticket window buying tickets so I kept a respectable distance of a couple of feet behind the person like we normally would in Canada. I turned ...

... in our hotel first, dropped everything, and rushed over to the restaurant. As we entered the private dining room, there were 9 people at the table: my mother's elder sister and younger sister--the oldest living relatives from my mother's family. From my generation, Feifei's husband, Song, from my elder aunt. Yanyan and her husband and son, Xiao, Ganggang and his wife (their daughter left today to South Korea on a student exchange ...

I only stayed in Hangzhou for 1 night but we did have some time during the day to look around. Along the waterfront is a lovely park with walkways and the golden ox (I think it's an ox??) in the water. There seemed to be a lot of shops here, which I wish I had of had time to explore! We did go to a centre where there were a lot of electronics... computers, phones, gps, you name it - it was here! <br><br>We had ...

... the bloke who was giving them really was from the Army. In fact given the uniform he was wearing I think he may have really been from the Army. Anyway it was most odd to see these civillian hospitality workers on parade for all the passing tourists to see. Even the homeless bum who was standing next to me thought it was funny. He was roaring with laughter and hurliing insults as the waitresses marched up and down on the spot, looking uttelry ridiculous.