Hangzhou Off The Beaten Path

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to be frank, I am not a fan for any kind of coffee.. but enjoy a hot coco in this starbucks with the greatest view was the best thing to do in spring morning.. :)

There were couple old chinese people playing Ma Jiang next to me.. it was a nice to see.. hehe.. Hangzhounese are really enjoy their life

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It took me 2 hours to strong along the riverside, finally I reached this area. The view was breathtaken for me, my eyes were filled with grand trees and foliages. You know, it might be normal for you. But I am from Shanghai, we barely have real natural stuff around... So it was a precious moment to me. :)

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I was walking through the sidewalk of west lake. Here is the inner lake which I seldom reached before. HZ ppl rebuilt this area and many of others small lakes around. It's quiet and fresh here, not as crowded as the old famous spots.

The Zhejiang Provincial Museum is a small museum located on Solitary Island. It is by no means a great museum but rather a competently arranged provincial museum which gives an account of the history of Zhejiang province. This means the usual collections of pots, weapons and jade all displayed in twelve galleries. Nothing here is remarkable but it does have the oldest example of cultivated rice which dates from 5,000 B.C. It comes from a nearby village. The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday and it costs Y15 to visit.

Why don't you get away from the touristy areas and venture into the small streets behind the main drags of Hangzhou and a few blocks away from the lake? here you will see more of what old Hangzhou must have been like, before blocks were demolished to give way for new residential and commercial buildings and wider roads to accommodate the ever-increasing number of cars. One easy way to get away from the main roads is to walk on the smaller roads running parallell to the bigger ones.

There is especially one area which I really appreciate. This is the area just west of Wu Hill and south-southeast of the Bell Tower, between Zhong He Zhong Lu and Wu Hill. Here you will see older buildings, and people making the street their living room and place of business and pleasure. If you are visibly foreign, you will no doubt get a few surprised looks, but do not let that disturb you.

You can round it off with a walk up the Hill to the Chenghuang pavilion (see my tip about the Wu Hill.)

If you climb up the Yu Huang Mountain, you can see this Ba Gua field up there. Everytime i went up the mountain to see it, it just keep raining. Maybe my personal Ba Gua affect the Ba Gua Field's weather?

Zhou Zhang Village
Zhou = Surename Zhou
Zhang = house (big one)

This place has been labelled by many Chinese they are very commericalize. Its true, very commercialize if you visit in day time, because not many people will stay behind at night, so if you stay at night, you can see the green river, big red lantern along the river.

its another story of Zhou Zhang itself. Please check the travelogue.

It's getting more and more popular, not only for tourists, also for the locals. Families camping there, enjoy the wonderful sunshine and sceneries. I was about to reach the area in the first trip. But my train forced me turn back to catch it. I didn't make it though, but I made up mind to go there on the next week to see clearly. I made it then. :)