I had never been to Hangzhou, one of the famous “heavenly” cities, despite its short distance to Shanghai till last month. Whenever I spoke of this “never” to friends and colleagues, they would respond with a doubtful look, followed by remarks of how beautiful Hangzhou, especially the West Lake, is. Give the number of years I live in Shanghai, it seems a shame that I had never seen the West Lake.
To make up this gap in my travelling experience, I decided to go to Hangzhou at a weekend in late October. A colleague kindly offered to accompany me, which saved me time and efforts in locating the various must-see tourist attractions.
With no need to work (teaching) on Monday, we designed a two-day itinerary for Sunday and Monday, Oct. 25-26. In this way, we hoped to avoid the weekend crowd at the West Lake, our major and sole destination. Our trip was simple, i.e. to travel on one side of the lake on the first day and the other side on the second day. Round-trip tickets were bought in advance. We would leave Shanghai by express train D5551 (Shanghai S. Railway Station – Wen Zhou) at 7:39 and arrive at 9:05 Sunday. For the return trip, we would take express train D5680 (Hangzhou – Shanghai S. Railway Station) at 18:25 and come back to Shanghai at 19:41 Monday. The hotel we booked was Han Ting Inns & Hotels at Lakeside (汉廷酒店杭州湖滨店, 西湖区保俶路43号, 近风起路), only minutes’ walk from the West Lake.
This trip was one of the most relaxing I had had, mainly because all places are close and I did not have to spend time finding them. After getting to Hangzhou, we took a taxi to the hotel before kicking off our lakeside sightseeing. We wanted to put our luggage bags at the hotel and thus have a lighter carry load while walking. We spent this first day on the western side of the lake, staring from Duan Qiao 断桥, strolling along Bai Di 白堤 and Su Di 苏堤, passing such places as Qiu Jin Memorial 秋瑾墓 and Yue Fei Temple 岳庙. In the evening, we went to He Fang St. 河坊街, which is famous for handicrafts and snacks, and then had dinner together with a childhood friend who works in Hangzhou. On the second day, we did the eastern side, with a ferry trip to 三潭印月 on the island in the lake and visits to the Fish Pond 花港观鱼 and Lei Feng Tower 雷峰塔. We ended the trip with a sightseeing cart ride along Su Di and got off at Duan Qiao, which is the closest point to the hotel.
The West Lake is indeed one of the most beautiful places in China. Lush vegetation is found everywhere, with tall willow trees whose branches hang elegantly over the water, delicately designed parterres with flowers in different colors, as well as wild plants that thrive in undisturbed peace. In addition, I found Hangzhou residents know how to enjoy life much better than Shanghai people. My colleague told me that one can distinguish between residents and tourists from the way they behave at the West Lake. Local people generally sit in leisure with a cup of tea plus some snacks, whereas travelers tend to walk in hurry, more often than not heading for a certain scenic spot listed on the map. I found this observation quite true.
To see is to believe. I have finally seen the heavenly West Lake for the first time, and more importantly, have come to believe what was once heard about it.
