Just realized that I still have many unconsumed annual leaves from the year before. And for some unknown reasons, work fatigue started to haunt me lately... it was perhaps a timely reminder for me to take a break from works! The question was where to go for holiday? As it turned out, my wife had been yearning for a trip to China for quite some time. Hence, China is a natural choice!
The last time I visited China was in year 2008. I was there to attend an epilepsy conference in Xiamen (with a brief tour of the city and Gulangyu 鼓浪屿). There were two other trips preceding this, namely visiting Shantou in 1994 and Three Gorges/Chengdu/Leshan/Ermei Shan in 1995. I guess it is good time to experience the changes in China after all these years. And for once, my wife and I were travelling without the children.
Then came the decision of where to go. Scoot was having promotion to Tianjin; but there is nothing much for sightseeing there, unless we ventured up north to Beijing. Jetstar flies to Hangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and a few other areas. Hangzhou with its famed West Lake was the obvious choice. Since there was only a slight difference between the air fare offered by a Jetstar and SIA, we finally opted for a flight to Shanghai via SIA, followed by bus ride to Hangzhou, then Xitand, Tongli, Suzhou, before departing from Shanghai back to Singapore.
DAY ONE: Arriving at Shanghai --> Travelling to Hangzhou
We took a midnight flight from Changi Airport on 8-7-2012, and arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport around 6.30am. There we waited till 8.30 am for the express bus that drove us all the way to Hangzhou. When we arrived at our hotel (新新饭店), it was about 2 pm. After checking into room, we immediately began our tour of West Lakes (西湖), which was located just in front of our hotel.
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| 西湖 |
As we were starving by then (having only taken breakfast around 4 a.m. in the plane), we stopped at 楼外楼饭店 for lunch. Supposedly many dignitaries have taken their meals there! Well, the food and service was only average. When we came out from the restaurant, it started to pour heavily. Luckily, my wife was well prepared - we put on disposable poncho, and shielded ourselves with umbrella. The rain stopped after a while, and we managed to complete first round of our walking tour along the White Causeway 白堤 with its famed Broken Bridge 断桥。
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| 白堤 |
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| 站在断桥上 |
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| 迷蒙的背景 |
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| 断桥 |
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| 断桥 |
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| 西湖北山路 |
After taking a short break in our hotel, we took a cab to night market. We bought some souvenirs from the night market, had our supper and went back to our hotel.
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| 夜市 |
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| 夜市 |
DAY 2: TOUR OF ATTRACTIONS AROUND WEST LAKE
The following day, we engaged the service of a tourist guide to drive us to selected tourist spots, namely:
岳王庙，六合塔，龙井，飞来峰。
The temple of YueFei 岳王庙 , the famous general in Song's Dynasty. Framed and imprisoned by the Prime Minister; and died mysteriously while in prison. A place to learn the life history of YueFei.
The rustic charm of the pagoda ... should not be missed ... much better than LeiFengTa 雷锋塔 (rebuilt version).
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| 步向六合塔 |
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| 从塔上往下一看 |
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| 旧屋 |
LongJing - a place where Emperor QianLong was enthralled by the tea served by an old lady 龙井问茶.
And we went just for that - to taste the famous tea. Ended up buying a small packet of tea leaves for personal consumption.
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| In front of the tea house |
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| Long Jing Tea Leaves - quite unique in its texture and shape |
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| 桂花香 Fragrance of Osmanthus |
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| 桂花 Osmanthus |
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| Tea Plantation |
Fei Lai Feng - famed for its many rock carvings/statues; particularly the Laughing Buddha.
LingYin Temple 灵隐寺- one of the ancient temples in China. It is located in the same vicinity as FeiLai Feng. There are two other Buddhist Temples in the surrounding mountainous terrains.
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| Zen style Buddhist Temple |
After that, we took a public bus back to our hotel for a short rest, before embarking on our second leg of walking trail along 苏堤 to 花港观鱼 and 雷锋塔.
ALONG THE SU CAUSEWAY
at last we could feel the serenity associated with West Lake...
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| Brisk walking in West Lake @Su Causeway苏堤 |
"Viewing the fish from the flower harbour"花港观鱼
Not quite sure what was so fascinating about the place???
Just a garden with a fish pond; perhaps we were not there at the right season!
Supposedly Emperor QianLong was quite fond of the place previously!
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| "Viewing the fish from the flower harbour"花港观鱼 |
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| You may just be able to see the fishes in the pond! |
Pagoda of Lei Feng 雷锋塔 is a "rebuilt" version. The original had been burnt down many years back. Legend has it that Madam White Snake was confined beneath the pagoda. It is a good place to have a bird eye's view of the West Lake (from the South).
We ended the day by taking a private bus to a local supermarket to purchase the soya bean blender machine. The private bus 小巴 brought us to the wrong night market (we visited there the night before). We ended up having to walk another 2 km to reach our final destination, and was rewarded with soya bean blending machine.
SO MUCH FOR DAY 2 OF OUR JOURNEY!
