We always say it is an early morning - but today was a very early morning – we woke up at 4:45am as we had an early morning flight from Xi'an to Hangzhou! We attempted to shower before leaving the hotel, but the water wouldn't get hot. (This was very reminiscent of India). So, we quickly freshened up the best we could, packed our bags, and met up with our group in the lobby. We took a van to the airport, which was about 45 minutes away from downtown Xi'an. Once we arrived at the airport, we made it through security surprisingly fast – with the exception of one bag. James's bag was searched because his collection of coins from our travels didn't look like coins on the x-ray screen - instead, the bag looked exactly like a grenade. Not a good first impression at the Chinese airport. Needless to say, this was not the case, and as soon as he showed them the bag of coins, they allowed him to go through.
We took a bus from the airport gate to the actual plane and boarded around 7:55am. We received a Chinese breakfast on the 2.5 hour flight, which helped pass the time. One of the people on the tour brought a People Magazine with her and gave it to Erin to read once she had finished it. Erin was grateful to catch up on celebrity gossip in America.
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| The Chinese in-flight snack. |
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| Traveling in style in China at Hangzhou Airport. |
Once we arrived in Hangzhou, we boarded a tour bus which took us to our hotel, right in the heart of the city. We had about an hour in the hotel to get settled in before we headed out for the day. Because our hotel was right in the city, we were able to walk everywhere. As a group, we walked to lunch, where our tour guide ordered several dishes for us to try. He ordered a few things that weren't very appetizing to many of us – including snail, quail eggs, and squid. James was brave, and tried each of them. Erin politely declined.
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| The squid was the most "normal" of the dishes James tried. |
After lunch, we walked a bit further into town and rented bicycles to ride around West Lake. The bicycles were old and dilapidated, which worried us as we all selected one to ride. But, it was a beautiful day, and we were more than grateful to get some fresh air riding lakeside.
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| James and Erin prepare to take on Hangzou's West Lake. |
The views were fantastic as we rode around the lake. We stopped several times to take pictures of the small pagodas and bridges that were located along the shore. And, we also stopped several times as some of the bicycles had minor issues (chains falling off, pedals falling off, etc...). Luckily, we were all able to laugh about the bedraggled bikes throughout the ride.
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| James relaxes on the shore of West Lake. |
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| Turtle Island, near a West Lake shrine. |
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| A statue of one of the water god protectors of West Lake. |
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| A beautiful pagoda off a West Lake dock. |
Nearly 2.5 hours later, we completed our lakeside ride and returned to the hotel. We had some downtime before we met up with the group for the next activity, so we went to our hotel room to rest for a bit. Erin tried to find something on television to watch, but out of nearly 60 channels, only one had English – and the program that was on was about a Chinese woman trying to teach English speakers how to speak Mandarin. We admit to watching it passively as we tried to rest, but we were disappointed we couldn't find something a little more “western” in nature.
We met up with the rest of our group later to walk through a different market. Our tour guide helped us take the public bus to the market where we wandered through the shops. We were the only Caucasians at the market, and people were definitely staring at us as we walked through. This market was different than some of the other Chinese markets in that it was far less crowded, and some of the items were influenced by the neighboring country of Nepal (very bohemian-style clothing). We stopped in a real Chinese medicine shop and looked around, although we had no idea what anything was. We also saw a craftsman blowing glass, as well as some people playing a Chinese carnival game for prizes.
While many of our group members were going to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, we opted to take a break and have some familiar food. Erin has had some swelling, tingling, and redness in her face for the past few days, and we think it may be in some way related to something in the food here (possibly MSG?). We decided to play it safe and try to eat differently for dinner tonight, so we went to McDonald's.
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| Interestingly, McDonald's in China offers corn as an alternative to french fries. |
Once we finished our dinner, we continued to walk through the market as headed back to our hotel. We stopped in a few shops to look around – including one with small figurines that James was tempted to buy, but did not. We eventually made our way back to the hotel, but decided to keep walking and to look for a grocery store to pick up some items for breakfast in the morning. Before grabbing some snacks from a bakery, we passed a Dairy Queen and couldn't resist purchasing a blizzard to split on the way home.
Once we returned to the hotel, we were pretty tired. It had been a very long day. James set-up the movie on the computer, and we watched it until we fell asleep.
