Hangzhou: ultra modern China

Hangzhou was unexpectedly awesome and quite impressive. It is about 2.5 hrs from where I live (Ningbo), and I went there by bus, subway and then train. The train was not too expensive, about 70 RMB. 

When I arrived there, I went directly to the national Park called xixi wetlands. It was about 40 minutes from the train station by bus, a lot of traffic. 



It was named that because it's a very large area with dozens and dozens of small lakes and rivers divided by small land masses. There are also a lot of beautiful gardens and it's wonderfully kept. 

I went during the week, so it wasn't too busy, which was great. I can imagine on the weekends it being ultra busy! I walked around there for about three hours or so, but I could definitely see spending the whole day there.

After leaving the national Park, I went to check into the hotel,  then went to check out a night market and then to a walking street. I'm always impressed by and enjoy a walking street in any city. I think every city should have one.

The next day, I went to West Lake. It's quite a large lake that's right on the side of the city. 

At west lake, I took a ferry boat to an island that's in the middle of the lake. The island is made up of small lakes, more like large ponds, separated and surrounded by strip of land that have walking paths and gazebos.

After that, I went to a temple. To go to the temple, I had to get on another ferry, leave the island and walk to the temple. The main temple area has a pagoda. The pagoda is ultra modern with an escalator going up to it and an elevator right in the centre of it, so you don't have to walk up each flight. 

I went up the escalator and then up the elevator to see the beautiful view from the top floor, and then I walked down, stopping at each flight to check out all the artwork on the walls, which was impressive, especially the wood work.

That evening, I went to the new town, city center. I went to see a building that is shaped like a huge golf ball. After that, I wandered out to the back of the building where there were many people waiting around a fountain, a very large one. 

I felt like they were waiting for something specific, so I waited there also and not long after the water show in the fountain begin. Music was played over a loudspeaker and the fountains danced and played along with it. The buildings that surrounded the area, and there were many, were all completely decked out with LED lights and were displaying many changing, cool images.

Following this, and in the same area, was an outlet mall. The most modern outlet mall I've ever seen in my life: built on two floors, indoors and outdoors, with escalators and wide staircases connecting it all and along side a river with even more buildings lit up with LED lights and walk ways. 

The next day, I woke up not too early and went back to Ningbo.