This weekend I visited Hangzhou together with Esthee and ShuLing – Hangzhou is another one of those highly acclaimed beautiful cities – and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Though man-made and therefore somewhat artificial, the gardens around the west lake are really pretty. We took a boat across the lake and had a look at the pools mirroring the moon, which is a big thing on the mid-autumn festival in the end of September. We also went up Leifeng Pagoda, which was recently refurbished and now has a handy escalator. Call me old-fashioned, but it takes away a lot of the charm of the place. Still, it is considered to be one of Hangzhou’s chief attractions. The views were very fine, admittedly. We walked tons on this day, resulting in severe back pain for Esthee and sore legs for the rest of us. But that way we saw a lot. And we also managed to buy some tea – Hangzhou is famous for LongJing, that is Dragon Well tea. We went to a really nice shop (were they charged a really nice price) and got to taste all the different types. I really like how they let you try everything before you buy it. We got back to the Hotel (I sneaked in the room with Esthee and ShuLing, so my own bed at the hostel wasted money, but I still got the nicer room) and slept like logs.
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