Hangzhou - My Obligatory Bike Ride in a Foriegn Country

 

Sunday dawned sunny and clear, a rarity if there ever was one in Shanghai. Some friends and myself made our way through the empty streets to the subway early in the morning and headed to the train station to board our train to the nearby city of Hangzhou. The train ride was quick and painless, only 45, during which I read and listening to music while we flew past the countryside at 300 km/hr.

 

 

When we arrived in Hangzhou we immediately made our way to the lake that the city is famous for. It was definitely beautiful and definitely full of tourists. As always happens outside of Shanghai I became a fascinating spectacle for most of the Chinese tourists who like to gawk at foreigners. We walked around eating cotton candy, taking pictures, interacting with the locals and tourists alike, before getting lunch. We ate at a place that is famous in Hangzhou and extremely popular with visitors. The food was good, and I especially enjoyed the green tea cakes we had for dessert.

After lunch we wanted to rent bikes to ride around the edges of the lake for a while. We found a place and rode for around two hours. It was amusing because every so often a police officer would be standing there and would yell at you to dismount the bike. Everyone would oblige but as soon as you passed him, you could get back on and he didn't care. It didn't make any sense and by the end of the trip I learned if I rode hidden behind a trolly that occasionally passed by, I could ride past the police officer undetected. At the time dismounting all the time was annoying but now it's just something funny that we just laugh and say, "that's so China."

We tried to get back to the train station to catch our train out at 4 PM but we didn't make it. Luckily it was easy to exchange our tickets and then we just had to wait...for 3 and half hours. We found a Burger King and sat down to play some cards. It ended up being a good time and we got on our 8 o'clock train without any problems and made it back to Shanghai tired, but happy for a fun day out of the city.