Zhejiang International Hangzhou

... see here, but my first inkling that it would be more than a trout sewn onto a fishing shirt was when Joe told us that no photography was allowed because they were concerned with the Japanese stealing the secrets of their craft. The unfortunate part is that we don&#8217;t have anything to show you how amazing it was. <br><br>The art is all done with silk thread. A single silk thread can be further divided into 48 ...

... don't do tour groups. We went along with this little venture because it was free and we wanted to get to know some of our Chinese colleagues outside of the school, which we accomplished. Our Chinese friends didn't seem to enjoy TGH any more than we did, by the way. If you have the choice, say no to tour groups. Roam the streets aimlessly. Book your own hotels and tickets. Find your own restaurants that are, if possible, far ...

... Off <br>went to Hangzhou for a visit "happy, relaxed"<br><br>Tuesday: working<br>recieved email - that physical must be done by a deadline "worried and stressed"<br><br>Wednesday: working<br>recieved email - spoke to family and arranged for them to find/ copy and send off requested materials. started contacting courier companies for quotes "determined, sure"<br><br>Thursday: working <br>organised to go to Shaoxing in the morning to have my physical ...

... 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 ...

... so we stopped there for a while and enjoyed the teahouse's garden. It was a really great place to slow down and relax. <br><br>After strolling through the Flower Harbor Park we walked along the Su Causeway which seperates the park from West Lake. It is a very nice place to stroll also. As we walked along it we talked about Hangzhou and what it was like living there. I had a lot of ...

First stop for today was the Temple of the Soul's Retreat with the unique caves and the carvings done into the rocks which date back to the 10th century, influenced from India by Indian monk Hui Li.<br><br>Next we went to a tea plantation and museum, Tea of the Dragon Well, and saw the hills of tea bushes and shown how they make the tea. We also enjoyed a tea ...

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.

... good. The funniest part of the trip was when the old guy across the aisle pulled out his rechargeable electric razor about 15 minutes out of Hangzhou and started shaving right there at his seat. <br><br>Once we got there we grabbed a cab and headed to our hostel. It is a city of about 7 million people. We found a wonderful hostel next to a beautiful walking park, West Lake. There are 28 lakes in China called West Lake, but this was the original ...

... we had a group picture. Cousin Feifei found us a nice motel and she insisted on paying for the night, on top of the trip from the airport! The motel owner, an 25 year-old entrepreneur was extremely nice to us and was excited to have guests, for the first time, from America. He wanted me to introduce his motel to other potential American tourists and I said I would put his address and contacts in my blog, once I get it written down.

... her that there was an incident in the past when some AIDS infected psycho filled a needle with his blood and was going around stabbing people with the needle. I could barely keep up with Sarah who was walking so fast because she didn't want to take any chances! =P The trains have a choice of standard hard plastic seats and nicer ones with cushions. We splurged and spent the extra 150RMB for the nice seats which were ...