Back from Hangzhou

I just came back from Hangzhou a few hours ago. So this entry is literally what I did...

Saturday morning we departed from Fudan University at 7:45am. We arrived in Hangzhou and went to see this Yuan Fen waterfall place. It was really humid and crowded that day. Then we went to eat lunch at this upper class restaurant place with the tour group. There, I met my cousin, LJ, who is studying Japanese in Hangzhou for a semester. She is originally from Huzhou. After that, we went to West Lake to go for a boat ride. It was really crowded at Sudi. It wasn't all that enjoyable, but at least we rode on a boat. I love being on the water.

Then we went to Hefang Street, where there is street food, some little gifts and stuff to buy. We didn't get too much time to spend there, so I didn't really think much of it. Then we went to this green tea garden, where they sold us some really expensive tea. I didn't buy any, but it tasted good.

Then, I got off to get a taxi with Scott because we were going to just stay in Hangzhou for the weekend. You can't just go to Hangzhou for a day, and anyways I was meeting with my cousin. So we went and stayed at the 4 Eyes Backpackers Youth Hostel on Hupao Street. It was near the dongwu yuan (zoo). The hostel was packed when we got there, people were everywhere, drinking and bbq-ing meat skewers, and socializing. We got a 10-person room. There were all random Chinese people in the room, but it was fine. Then we went out and explored.

First we got some food because we were starving. We had some typical Hangzhou food. We had this whole chicken wrapped in leaves, some shrimp with green tea leaves on top, and some veggies. Then we decided to just walk around and take some pictures. It was awesome walking at Sudi at night because it wasn't so crowded. It was a nice night too so we walked all the way across the lake. Then we walked across this bridge and took a cab to Liu Gong Yuan, where we caught a bit of some live performance, and then went off to explore that area. We came across PARTYWORLD, which is this upscale ktv place. That's the place you want to be if you want to do some partying. There was this hip hop place too. Then we just took a taxi back to the hostel. I went to sleep, and Scott just socialized with some random people.

In the morning, we met up with my cousin and went back to Hefang Street. This time, we entered on the opposite side, and we got to see the Expo there. It was pretty cool. I bought some really different types of snacks. Then we just walked, and Scott got a portrait done. We also bought some green tea, and my cousin showed us where to get some ostrich meat, swan meat, and deer meat. We tried all three, and ostrich meat is definitely my favorite. It is so good. They give you this huge skewer of it! We also had this traditional Hangzhou dessert, this white stringy candy stuff with peanut stuff inside. Then we went and ate shenjian (shrimp-flavored). They were amazing! After that, we went to the center of the city to do some shopping. I bought so much stuff! It was great. Then we just went back on the train from the Hangzhou Dong Huoche Zhan (east station). We arrived at the Shanghai Nan Zhan (south station), close to 10pm. Subways stop running at 10pm, so we ran to catch it. If we didn't catch the subway, a taxi ride would have cost a lot of money because Shanghai South Railway Station is extremely far away from Jiangwan Station. (It's like more than 15 stops, I think).

Anyways, we finally made it back...=)

Next trip: Taipei....first I am going to do some more exploring within Shanghai and meet up with some friends this weekend...