A day at west lake

Published on June 15, 2009 in Hangzhou. 13 Comments
As I quickly found out from everyone here, the biggest tourist attraction in the area is the West Lake in downtown Hangzhou. After an interesting breakfast composed of an oatmeal-type concoction and mibao (a sort of bread filled with some sugary stuff), Meixie and her husband dropped me off at the lake for the day to do some wandering (they had to run some errands).
The locals weren’t messing around. The lake was gorgeous. There were many old-style Chinese buildings littered around the surrounding park, and the hills in the background facing west were very beautiful. Looking the other way, the lake against the backdrop of a modern Hangzhou skyline provided an interesting contrast. Interestingly, it seemed as if all the non-Chinese tourists were fixated on the pagodas and old statues, while the Chinese tourists were instead snapping photos with the Hangzhou skyscrapers, the future of China, in the background. I don’t want to delve too deeply into that, but you get the idea. Here are some choice pictures from the trip:
After cruising around the scenic parts of the lake, I walked around downtown Hangzhou for a bit. The city was nice, albeit kinda noisy — Chinese people are quite fond of the car horn. However,
As I quickly found out from everyone here, the biggest tourist attraction in the area is the West Lake in downtown Hangzhou. After an interesting breakfast composed of an oatmeal-type concoction and mibao (a sort of bread roll filled with some sugary stuff), Meixue and her husband dropped me off at the lake for the day to do some wandering.
The locals weren’t messing around. The lake was gorgeous. There were many old-style Chinese buildings littered around the surrounding park, and the hills in the background facing west were very beautiful. Looking the other way, the lake against the backdrop of a modern Hangzhou skyline provided an interesting contrast. Interestingly, it seemed as if all the non-Chinese tourists were fixated on the pagodas and old statues, while the Chinese tourists were instead snapping photos with the Hangzhou skyscrapers, the future of China, in the background. I don’t want to delve too deeply into the philosophical meanings of that, but you get the idea. Here are some choice pictures from around the lake:

west lake 1

After cruising through West Lake, I walked around downtown Hangzhou for a bit. The city was nice, albeit rather noisy — Chinese people are quite fond of the car horn. In addition to cars, there were bikes, motorbikes, mopeds, gopeds, scooters, and other miscellaneous 2-wheeled vehicles. The roads in downtown Hangzhou are, by any measure, massive. The average width of the roads was about 8 lanes, clear signs of some serious urban planning done beforehand:
typical street in downtown Hangzhou

typical street in downtown Hangzhou

they like their bikes

they like their bikes

a spirited game of... something

a spirited game of... something

Hangzhou is one of China’s new cities, born as a result of the massive migration of farmers and laborers from surrounding rural areas. Cranes and constructions crews were visible on every block, as were American restaurants and stores. Stores like Gucci and Versace littered the lakeside streets, and it wasn’t unusual to see exotic italian car dealerships:
italian cars that go fast

cars that go fast

three places every child should visit daily

three places every child should visit daily

At first I was convinced that these stores and dealerships were filled with fake goods. Upon further inspection however, the cheapest suit I could find ran upwards of ¥10,000 RMB (about $1500 USD). Which begs the question: where is all of this money coming from?
- Pu Anren

13 Responses to “A day at west lake”

Feed for this Entry
Comments are currently closed.