Took a train to Hangzhou [杭州]. It’s about 2 hours off and costs between RMB $44 – $48, depending on the hours and the type of train. According to a local, it can be even as low as RMB $29.

It was a little surprising to me that Hangzhou is another modern city when I arrived and I must say that I am completely ignorant of China and I should do something about my perception of the country of my forefathers. From Hangzhou railway station it was only about 10 – 15 mins to Xihu [西湖] or West Lake itself. Flag down far is just RMB $10 itself, and the lake is so near to the train station that the meter didn’t move at all.

Population density in Hangzhou seems to be way lower than Shanghai because I don’t feel as hemmed in and surrounded there, and it appears as orderly as Shanghai itself. However, I am not aware if the security is as good or better than Shanghai because crime rates – as I was told – differs between cities.

Anyway, about 30 minutes after arriving in Xihu, we gave in the the constant harassing of a local peddler who put us onto a vehicle that took us around Xihu for RMB $50. We only need to pay when we hit the last point of the route and he gave us brief introductions of the places he took us to. I learn a few things about the history and the origins of the places along the way as I took some photos.

You can check out the album below.

* Click on the picture to view the album
And it doesn’t work in Opera so give up…

To my friends who are watching this blog closely, this is what you have been waiting for: Photos of my Shanghai trip.

As usual, the skill of the photographer left much to be desired even with a better camera. Some of the pictures appear a little blurry and that’s because were taken in night shot mode without a tripod on a Panasonic DMC-FZ5 (borrowed from my friend Bernard). For those who wants to know how I took them, I either try to hold my hands as steady as possible or put the camera on something stable and then take them by setting the time to 2 secs.

More photos of my recent trip to Hang Zhou will follow after the write up, and since it’s late, I am going to catch some sleep before I work on the next piece.

* Click on the picture to view the album
And it doesn’t work in Opera so give up…