TravelStream™ news feed for member autpit on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/autpit en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:34:30 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243825980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243825980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243825980/tpod.html Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:34:30 -0400 China. My backpacking adventure.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Well, this is my last blog entry. Today, I arrived back in Austria, after six and a half weeks of travelling thru Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China. I am grateful for the many impressions, travel experiences, and friends I made along my trip. And I returned with a mixed feeling - as always - being back to "normal life".
What's my conclusion now? Hard to tell, but here are my main learnings: China - what I have seen - is not as exotic as I thought or expected. In fact, staying in bigger cities (small cities are around 1m people), life is almost as modern, organised and manageable as in Europe. Still, China or Chinese people may be controversial in some respects, think of queuing up, or not, think of helping you out, or ripping you off, depending on where you are and what you do. Overall, I found Chinese people be extremely nice, curious, helpful and honest which I probably liked the most. Key, as with any other country or culture, is to learn the language as you cannot rely on English being understood (no surprise, of course). In Beijing, I found being best understood, though. You should also not forget to bring your own toilet paper or tissues - this can be helpful in most of the places ;) And you should practise your bargaining skills - that also helps in many places, and combining with some language skills, enables you to really make good or better deals than without. Hygiene, other than I was told, was no problem at all. Of course, tap water is not drinkable, but I found it rather easy to consider some basic travelling common sense not to risk anything here.

Here are my Top 3 cities that I have visited:
3. Hong Kong - amazing skyline and mix of British and Chinese culture.
2. Hangzhou - a lovely city around the beautiful West Lake.
and, to my own surprise:
1. Beijing - a modern, energetic, dynamic, historic and beautiful capital of a changing China.

What I liked the most:
3. The diverse offer of dishes and food. This is not surprising, as China has a similar geographic size as Europe. Many local cuisines are delicious, and travelling thru this big country then becomes a food journey as well.
2. The hike on the Great Wall, 10km from Jinshanling to Simatai, passing some 30+ towers, seeing rebuilt parts, and broken ones, enjoying great views and sceneries. It is a "great" wall, indeed.
1. Chinese people, their openness and curiousity, and the way how they live and their attitude. Even though the big cities are crowded, taking rides on public transport can become uncomfortable, and streets can be chaotic, Chinese seem to never lose their positive attitude and their smiles. I will definitely miss this!

At last, I want to thank all of you who joined me - locally or remotely - on my trip, who sent me comments or emails to the places I visited and the stories I told. I never felt having travelled alone, though I was, and this was the greatest experience of all. I am particularly grateful for this - your - fellowship. Thank you so much!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243670520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243670520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243670520/tpod.html Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:26:55 -0400 China. My backpacking adventure.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Beijing, China

It is Friday, beautiful weather in Beijing, and together with Wendy I visited the Summer Palace. This is an amazingly huge area in the north-west of Beijing, and it is a popular destination on a holiday like that day. Remember: yesterday, on Thursday, it was the Dragon Boat Festival, and today on Friday is a public holiday as well. So quite a lot of locals decided to spend the day in the park, like ourselves. The main sights are Longevity Hill with its Temple and other smaller pavilions and of course the grand Kunming Lake. We walked around the lake and spent some five hours in total there, resting on the waterside, watching people and enjoying the amazing calmness of this place - considering the fact that we are still in 16m people Beijing capital! Back in town, we had a dinner near Qianmen before enjoying a nightly theatre performance at the popular Lao She Teahouse. The performance consisted of several small tea ceremonies, folk music, acrobatics, opera, magic and martial arts. Highlight for me was the stunning performance of an acrobatic, moving a big vase and a table with her feet at an amazing speed. Likewise, the martial arts and kung fu part was another clap-your-hands performance. Tea and snacks have been served. Taking photographs or videos was not allowed, although people did not care that much and took them. Like myself :)
On Saturday, Wendy and me took a taxi to the publicly not that easily reachable 798 Art Factory (798, say "qi jiu ba") - a former electronics factory area that has been transformed into Beijing's no. 1 hot spot for modern art and young artists. The whole area is filled with small galleries, cafes, souvenir and art shops, and is indeed huge! The atmosphere is more than nice, admission to all galleries is free and you can easily spend a whole day there! After this cultural consumption, we delved into Silk Street Shopping market heading for some souvenirs, bargaining to a level almost not decent anymore. We then took the metro near the area around Houhai Lake, strolled thru the hutongs around and finally enjoyed a nice dinner at the Lake which is popular around locals and tourists as a restaurant and bar mile in evenings and during nights. We called it a night with two Mojitos (20 RMB each), in fact quite nice ones, at the Aroma Bar on a quieter corner of Houhai Lake. This was my last day in Beijing, and the day before departing for going back to Austria ...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243562100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243562100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243562100/tpod.html Thu, 28 May 2009 10:31:11 -0400 China. My backpacking adventure.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Beijing, China

Finally, I found a wangba (= internet cafe) with loads of young people playing some games online, and smoking besides. but the speed of the connection is awesome here ...
Likewise, I can upload pictures here and did so for the previous two entries. Have a look for further impressions from Xi'an and my first one and a half days in Beijing.
In the meantime, I did the following (I keep that shorter, but instead upload a bit more pics). On Tuesday, I did an awesome hike on the Great Wall with three fellow couchsurfers. A guy here in Beijing organised the trip, which meant organising a private driver to bring us and drop us at a place called Jinshanling (ca. 2 to 2.5 hrs to the north of Beijing), and pick us up four hours later at a place called Simatai. In between, we had our amazing walk, hike, adventure. This was about 10km on the wall, with some 30 or 31 towers we passed. Restored wall areas, as wall as broken ones. A great day! at the end of the hike, there was a 400m zipper rope going down to the river nearby, which was an awesome finish.
On Wednesday, I visited the famous Forbidden City, now better known as Palace Museum or Imperial Palace. It was that place where I have seen the most tourists so far from all the places i have seen in China. Just amazing. Later on that day, I went to Lama Temple and moved from my couchsurfer place to a hotel, for several reasons. For the last four nights now, I will stay at this 4star place with a price reduction thru my bargaining skills of more than 60%.
Today, on Thursday, I met with Benson, another friend of Emily, and joined him for another wedding. How crazy is this: i am in China for almost six weeks, and been to two weddings now! this one has been not as simple as the other one, taking place at a nice restaurant place in Beijing. Have a look at the pics! Later on, Bension directed me to a place called Hongqiao for cheap souvenir and clothings, and later on we went to Houhai lake - being very popular to go out, stroll around the lake, take a boat ride, and so forth. Also, very touristic, but interesting! Benson has been a great host for that day and we finished with at a restaurant chain called Quanjude, famous for its roasted Peking duck. This was incredibly good, and among the best food experiences i had in China! Thanks to Benson, this day has been another great experience in Beijing, which just confirmed the city to be my most likeable one in China, besides Hangzhou. Beijing is just great!
Tomorrow on Friday, I will visit the Summer Palace, maybe some more hutongs.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243279140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243279140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243279140/tpod.html Thu, 28 May 2009 09:55:10 -0400 China. My backpacking adventure.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Beijing, China

Yesterday, on Sunday, I took a flight from Xi'an to Beijing. This is my third within-China flight. After having flown with both China Southern and with Shanghai Airlines, I took China Eastern Airlines this time. Arriving at the airport very early ( around 7.30am ), i was surprised how many Chinese visitors and some foreign visitors have already gathered there. I enjoyed a filling mushroom-minced pork noodle breakfast before having a convenient flight to Beijing. There are 10 or so shuttle bus lines from the airport into the city, and an Airport Express metro line as well. I met my host for the first couple of days here, Will, who is Chinese and working as a software developer for a US company.
In the afternoon, I spent some time on Tian'anmen square, talking to some Chinese who obviously wanted to practice their English. The square is in fact amazing, the gates having been built are ordered in line and just huge, and the Monument to the People's Heroes and of course the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall are THE popular locations for taking pictures. When entering the square area from the metro station, security checks are done for all the bags one brings. Also for all metro stations, security checks are done when entering them.
In the evening, I met up with our local colleagues from the bwin office having a dinner in the office building's great restaurant.
Today, on Monday, so far, I spent the day in the office. Today is supposed to be not that hot (only about 28 degrees), but for tomorrow some 32 degrees are forecast. My plan for tomorrow is to hike on the Great Wall for some 10km with some fellows from couchsurfing, and to go to some places on the Wall that are not that crowded. This will pretty much take the whole day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243061700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243061700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1243061700/tpod.html Thu, 28 May 2009 09:46:23 -0400 China. My backpacking adventure.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Xi'an, Shaanxi, China

On Friday, I was on an Eastern Tour around Xi'an. This one was quite interesting, but less because of the sights we took a look at. I booked the tour at the Bell Tower Youth Hostel, which I also chose to stay from Sat to Sun (because of the necessity of getting up early on Sun to catch my flight to Beijing at 9am). The tour cost 300 RMB, including transportation, entrance fee, an English speaking guide and a Chinese lunch. I was picked up at the hostel in the morning by a tour guide trainee named Audrey. We had a nice chat, and in fact this was just the 'warm up' phase for the tour as she did not join this one. I was picked up by a car with two more visitors and the tour guide ... which means we had a private driver for the tour and a very intense tour guiding service. The other visitors - what a coincidence - have been two girls living in London, one being German, the other one being Austrian. Counted correctly, this sums up to three Austrians I met here, except the three others i prepared to meet anyway. We first went to a place called Banpu Village, a neolithic site which was supposed to be matriachaic. The site comprised some excavations, a pottery manufacturing area with models of early used pottery kilns. Quite interesting and a good start for the day. Our tour guide was named Sunny, a smiling local Chinese who tried her best to tell us background stories of the sites we visited. The next stop was a local factory / manufacturing place for pottery, all kinds of statues, lacquers and so forth. We were basically supposed to do some souvenir shopping here, nothing else. The second attraction of the day's tour was the Tomb of Qin Shi Huang, but in fact it was not - as expected - the mausoleum place, but a copy construction of the tomb as it is supposed to look like. essentially, it was a hall with a rather high entertaining and amusement/park like character. nothing really special to see, and a place to spend 10 minutes. but not more. we then had a lunch break before proceeding to the day's main attraction: the army of terracotta warriors. of course, this is one of the main sights throughout China, and you could tell by just taking a look at the many visitors there. however, we three left this place with rather mixed feelings. the army, no doubt, is remarkable and the excavations (the large amount of them is not yet done in fact, and thus not visible) are interesting. just the imagination of the greatness of this underground army protection the tomb of qin shi huang, china's first real emperor, is awesome. however, what has been done out of this place in terms of a touristic site is either disappointing or just shake-your-head weird. the area devoted to the place is huge - okay, there are three pits to visit, from which two are interesting, the third has just a couple of warriors, weapons and some other stuff featured - and we got the impression that a whole small village has been built around this place. for the moment, again, there is not so much to see. sunny told us that in a couple of years, most probably, much more of the excavations will be presented as archeologists are still working on the site. but for now, this is big amusement, big business, and a lot of hot air around a then small area.
in the evening then, matjaz (my host), a friend of him called felix and me went to one of matjaz chinese friends' place to visit a chinese wedding on the next day. this place was a bit outside of xi'an, to the east, in a rather poor, previously farmer's area. houses have been built recently there, are still being built, lots of incomplete buildings can be watched (which seem never to be finished anyway). we met the family there, again in a rather poor area. amazing is the way how these people deal with waste: waste is just thrown away, even without their own house, ashes from cigarettes just put on the floor, and the overall impression is that the understanding of well-being, of preserving nature, and of taking care in general is pretty much under-developed. still, it was an interesting experience, the wedding itself a celebration without any religious connotation, with lots of food, drinking, games, and entertainment for relatives, friends and visitors.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242959100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242959100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242959100/tpod.html Thu, 21 May 2009 10:44:38 -0400 China. My backpacking adventure.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Xi'an, Shaanxi, China

Yesterday, I arrived in Xi'an. In Shanghai, it was quite heavily raining, and I was even happy to use my rain jacket and rain protection for the back pack. Otherwise, it would have been so useless taking them all the way to China. In fact, as always it seems, I took too many things with me. But that's another story.
Xi'an is world-famous for the Terracotta Army of Warriors. However, this sight is east of Xi'an, and quite a ride. I will do a tour tomorrow to visit this place, amongst others. Xi'an as a city is one of the few with a remaining city wall which is quite impressive (rebuilt and restored, though). Inside, the old town with the main sights can be found: Bell Tower, Drum Tower, the Muslim quarter and its Great Mosque. Before taking a rest in the afternoon, I spent the whole morning and lunchtime around these places. Take a look at the pictures to get an impression of Xi'an city!
Part II of my Xi'an blog will then be devoted to the Terracotta Army of Warriors, the Banpu Museum and a tomb site.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242826140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242826140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242826140/tpod.html Thu, 21 May 2009 10:25:03 -0400 China. My backpacking adventure.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Suzhou, Anhui, China

Another day in Shanghai. Beautiful weather, sunshine. I decided to take the metro - which already counts nine lines if I remember it correctly - to an area known as French Concession, although you will never find this name on any map. As one can expect, the architecture there is pretty much European, and thus very different from other parts of Shanghai. Lonely Planet says, Shanghai without the French Concession would be like London without Kensington. I first walked around an area known as Xin Tian Di, packed with restaurants, bars, clubs and some shops. It is very lively during the evenings and nights, but also during lunch time. I hardly felt being in Shanghai or China, because of the many Westerners, the specific selection of restaurants where you eat with forks and knives - hard to use those again :) - and the many English and French words you hear around you. Likewise, it fealt very business-like, with the many business suits around you. As a backpacking tourist, the picture was almost a bit contradictory.
I then found my way south/west, first through Fuxing Park and then to Taikang Road, known for its art centre, many little lanes with cosy cafes and shops that invite for strolling around and enjoying art.
Afterwards, I headed back to the Old Town and Yu Garden which I missed the day before. Compared to Suzhou's gardens - see below - this garden did not offer that much, indeed. As on Sunday, I tried to escape the crowded area there as soon as possible and called it a day by enjoying a foot massage - after almost five weeks travelling, this one was a relief for my feet, though not necessarily during the massage. If it hurts, then something is not in balance regarding your health. Well, what a surprise for a Westerner and our Western lifestyle ... although I guess the Chinese will have the similar pains as well ... the good old and traditional lifestyle changes at a tremendous speed. Fast food, in particular McD and KFC, as well as coffee, ice cream, and so forth seem to win the game over time. And Tai Chi is really only played (this is funny, Chinese always say "play Tai Chi", and not "practise") by old people ...
On Tuesday, I got up way too early to catch a morning train to Suzhou, well-known for its ancient gardens. I have been contacted by a guy named Henry before, who saw my post on the couchsurfing site. Surprisingly, he and his wife awaited me at the exit of Suzhou's train station, and we spent a wonderful morning and lunchtime together. There are several gardens to see in Suzhou, amongst other inviting places around the old canals that still run through the inner part of town. One day is definitely not enough to enjoy Suzhou, but I had to return to Shanghai to prepare for moving on to Xi'an the next day. In the evening, I was back at the Taikang Road art centre, at Bell Bar, joining the weekly couchsurfing meeting there, also enjoying a real Czech Budvar and German Erdinger beer. What a difference, compared to Chinese beer!
One thing particularly interesting to me is the way how Chinese queue up for trains. Commonly known, the queue is not that popular here, and when trying to enter buses or other places, people tend to just use their elbows if necessary. On the platforms and waiting for the trains, though, people oddly queue up in several lines where the doors of trains are to be expected. And this really works. Likewise, I found the organisation at the train stations very efficient. Of course, if you need to queue up at the ticket office - good luck. Chinese like to ignore queues there, just go ahead of the queue and don't even mention a word. After passing the mandatory baggage security check (at every train station upon entering it), you then head for the waiting hall or lounge and there you wait until 10 to 15 minutes before the train arrives. Only then, the gates open, the tickets are validated manually, and all people move to the platforms. Then the queue/up game begins. On my trip from Shanghai to Suzhou, and particularly back in the evening, not only hundreds of people queued up and waited. Must have been at least one thousand. And the train left almost on time. Fascinating system, indeed!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242654900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242654900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242654900/tpod.html Sun, 17 May 2009 22:08:40 -0400 China. My backpacking adventure.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Shanghai, Shanghai, China

On Saturday, I arrived in Shanghai. Hot, dusty, dirty. One could tell that the air quality is a different than the one in Hangzhou. In fact, I appeared to react allergically to this and still do. It may be a hayfever, or just the quality of the air here. On my first day, I pretty much spent most of the time in the Shanghai Museum, which is sort of the center of the People's Square in town. The museum offers free admission, is thus quite crowded, and offers an amazing collection of bronze work, statues, paintings, calligraphy, coins, porcelain, and so forth. Shanghai being known to be a small place - only about 19 million people living here - it happened that I met two girls from Australia in front of the museum that I got to know in Hangzhou during my first evening's dinner. How small the world is! Later on, I met Malcolm, my host here in Shanghai, and his family at whose place I stay here. We had a wonderful family dinner and I could enjoy a long lasting conversation with Malcolm's mum who is an English teacher here in Shanghai.
On Sunday then, I started my city discovery by walking down the East Nanjing Road to People's Square again where I was to meet Michelle, another acquaintance from Couchsurfing. We enjoyed a lunch at a fancy place called "Baby Doll" ;) In the afternoon, I took a walk around the tremendously crowded area of Old Town, with its Yu Garden, but escaped rather quickly as it was hard to breathe there. I called it a day with walking along Nanjing Road again, this time in an enlightened evening perspective, and of course along The Bund, with a good view of the night skyline of New Pudong area with its towers and skyscrapers.
My first days impressions of Shanghai are different than the ones of Hangzhou: Shanghai feels definitely more of being a metropolis, it is differently busy, and it probably takes more time to love this place. I have been annoyingly often approached by touts and different other people trying to sell me something, trying to convince me to join them for a tea ceremony, and so forth. It is place to watch out. It is Shanghai.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242435900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242435900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242435900/tpod.html Sun, 17 May 2009 21:37:22 -0400 China. My backpacking adventure.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

I already mentioned that I like Hangzhou very much. I guess it is because of this mixture of West Lake, the many parks around, a city that it busy but not too chaotic and not too dirty, the delicious food I enjoyed throughout and the many kind people I met along.
On Thursday, I spent the day with Alice who replied to my group post at the couchsurfing website. I was looking for someone who is also interested in walking around town, doing some sightseeing, etc. She took her day off and we met in the morning for a walk around the north-east bank of the lake. We then took a boat ride to the Lesser Yingzhou Island (don't ask me why it is called like this), famous for its scenery of "Three Pools mirroring the Moon". There are three 2m high towers in the lake with some holes in them. At full moon, it is said that the moon light is mirrored in the lake then in a very beautiful way ... At least we could tell that the place has to be very popular because of the many Chinese tourists around. We then proceeded with the boat to a nearby park and a Red Carp Pond. Again, very crowded, we could watch carps in a pond and tourists being crazy to watch them. Interesting and a bit disgusting for me was the way how these tourists made a sport out of feeding the fish: they essentially spit their food into the pond, and of course the fish were out for that. Not very nice to watch ...
We quite fast left the place and had a late lunch break, also taking shelter as a small rain shower passed by. We then took the bus to go to the Longjing Tea Village, and further on walked to the national tea museum. You can learn everything about tea, there are exhibitions, and of course tea ceremonies held in tea houses and a shop to let you buy overpriced tea. We didn't spend much time there as the museum was already about to close. Still, the scenery around this village was very nice and a definitely worth the trip.
Back at home, we prepared for dinner. This time, I was supposed to meet Peter and his wife. Peter is a friend of Emily - my Taiwanese friend in Vienna helping me out with Mandarin before my trip - and they got to know each other in Austria. In fact, Peter stayed in Vienna for two years studying at the university, and admitted to love Viennese cuisine with its Schnitzel and also its beer. So Peter and his wife, my hosts Sarah and Joel, as well as Alice and me had this wonderful dinner at a fancy (and expensive) place called Xile. We had our own private room for dinner, and enjoyed an exceptionally tasteful and delighting composition of dishes.
Friday then was again very hot. I met Alice again and we first went to the Botanical Gardens before having a breakfast at the Free Mori, a place I have been three times during this week with indeed very good coffee and Western style bakery - this was and is in fact something a bit missing here. We then headed again towards the lake, climbing up the peak of the Yellow Dragon Cave Park, before having a rest at the lake during the afternoon. For dinner - as you see, it is all about eating and drinking here - we met again with Peter and his wife, and with Eric whom I got to know earlier this week. He suggested to go to a farmer's place near the Botancial Gardens, and in fact my friend Robert recommended this place and the food there. The place itself was not that inviting, rather simple in style, but the environment very typical Chinese, and the food exceptionally well done. This time, it was my turn to invite, and also to say good-bye for the time being to my new friends. It was my last evening in Hangzhou as I already bought the train ticket to Shanghai for Saturday morning.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242271200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242271200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/autpit/1/1242271200/tpod.html Wed, 13 May 2009 11:36:06 -0400 China. My backpacking adventure.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

My second day in Hangzhou. After my arrival in Hangzhou on Monday, with some 35 degrees outside, I was instantly invited to a larger dinner gathering of friends and colleagues from Sarah and Joel, my hosts here. This was an interesting round of people, both spending time and working here in HZ, as well as visitors eg from Australia. Yesterday, Robert (a former working colleague at bwin) and me met in the morning and planned to spend parts of the day together. Luckily, it happened that we both arranged to meet up only last week as we both fixed our travel plans. So we met at a lovely cafe with indeed good coffee and bakery, before heading into downtown for checking out various shopping places. We split up after lunch but met again in the evening to have dinner and go out with Robert's host in HZ, Eric, who is a local Chinese here. Kind enough, Eric taught us to play the most common Chinese card game (don't ask me for the name), which you can watch all around Chinese towns. It's all about gaming, you know. To be recommended is a visit of the Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine, accessible via walking to one of the oldest TCM drug stores around. Very interesting and charming to see!
Today, we met again in the morning before Robert left for the airport to catch his flight to K.L. I spent the day with Florian, a German guy Robert met during his stay here, taking a look at various sights and places, including the Botanical Gardens (however, out of season with not so much to see, indeed), the Zhejiang Provincial Museum (not necessarily a must-see here), Gu Hill and the Baidi Causeway as well as the scenery along the north and east bank of West Lake, the city's sort-of symbol and main attraction. In fact, Hangzhou is said to be a) the best tourist city in China (due to Tourism Board), b) the safest one in a country that is extremely safe (due to Tourism Board), and c) the tea capital of China (due to Longjing tea and tea village in the south/west of the city). Of course, HZ is also said to be the most beautiful place in China. Other Chinese say other things about other places... The weather improved from yesterday, where it was extremely smoggy, dusty, windy and dirty, to today with convenient temperatures around 26 degrees (felt), some clouds but also little sunshine and overall much better views. The rain yesterday evening helped a bit. Overall, I found HZ to be a very lovely place, beautiful town, much cleaner and organised. Probably the most convenient place to stay that I have seen so far in China.
]]>