28-Days China Expedition - Day 2 Hangzhou

09 May 2011 (Monday) - Day 2

Woke up at 7am but I think I woke up too early. Spent about 1+ hour doing some admin stuff because we had to wait for the couch surfer to bring us around to get our bus ticket, phone card and transportation card.

Ate a 梅菜扣肉bun and freshly blended soya bean drink. The bun flavour sounds weird but trust me, it tasted great!

People who know me will know I'm not a flour person, but its really great. There was a toufu flavoured bun and it tasted great too! I didnt like the soya bean though, it was too powdery for my liking.

Got a SIM card, got our bus ticket and we're left on our own with directions on how to get our transportation card. Had quite a tough time finding the place though. When we finally got it, goodness, its the best card I can ever have in China - Free bicycle for riding for the entire day *provided you know the trick to it*!

These bikes stations were everywhere! Getting a bike is simply so convenient and moving around on the bike is equally as convenient :)

We got the bikes and got all ready to tour the west lake. However, some traffic police kinda gave us the impression that we would probably miss the scenery if we're on wheels so we returned the bikes on the next nearest bike kiosk that came into sight. However, stupidity, or should I say unfamiliarity, got us into some unwanted mess in due time.

We went on foot visiting sites like the bridge that the famous white snake met her nerdy boyfriend and some small artistic pavilions.

Along the way, we saw people cycling within the premises and we finally decided that we should just get on the bikes again. Only then we realised we're about to get ourselves in deep shit.

Backdrop the the mess: we borrowed the bike using the transport card that we 'purchased'. it worked relatively similar to our ez-link card and transportation system. Tap in when you need to borrow, and tap out when you need to return. Amidst our excitement about the tour, we exchanged bike with each other because QH got one that was incompatible with his height. We conveniently forgot that we had exchanged bikes, and we returned the bikes with the 'wrong' cards.

Back to the trip:

We only realised the 'mistake' when we couldn't borrow a new bike at the kiosk. When we approached the assistant at the counter, he taught us how to use the card properly and told us that we still had un-returned bikes, thus we cant borrow another one. Horror! We called the bike company and they said we will have to forfeit out deposit of 200RMB if we fail to return the bike. good gracious. we took about 30 mins to hurry back to the previous kiosk which we left 1.5 hours ago, only to find 1 out of 2 bikes! horror of all horrors! The other one was already borrowed by another person! Fortunately, the person had too returned the bike at another station. That spared us the agony of compensation and worrying for lost bike.

Went for bike for the rest of the day. The scenery around the west lake is really beautiful. True appreciation that do justice to the beauty is if you can appreciate it in peace.

Next stop: 雷峰塔。

Came by a pond with a bunch of turtles sunbathing on the platform in the middle. The way those turtles fought just to get up on top... they're incredibly cute.

I spent at least 5-10 minutes watching them, giving pity remarks to the turtles who got trampled on or fell back into the pond before reaching the top. Little things that makes me happy :)

For the genuine needy like elder folks or the cheat-sters who are too lazy, some modern technology greets us before we enter the legendary pagoda.

The original pagoda had collapsed long ago. The new pagoda is an enlarged and extended version, surrounding the ruins of the original one so that they can preserve the remains. Too tourist-fied with chinese cultural stuff like paintings of the birth of buddhism and the wooden carvings of the legend of the white snake.

We basically cycled past the other tourist attractions and only looked from the outside because they're all crowded with chinese tourists. Definitely too crowded for sightseeing.

Not forgetting to take a photo for 'I was here' purposes @ the beautiful west lake.

Left around the evening time to visit 'Hefang old town' which is a footpath street that is filled with chinese ancient cultural stuff. Its not really ancient per se, just old school.

Something from the chinese movies/shows stood up: 状元馆 a.k.a scholar restaurant. Only scholars can enter?

Saw the legendary 回春堂。

Seriously, the authentic chinese medicine hall with the extricate chinese-style interior is just awesome. The while environment just makes the experience breathtaking.

I really feel like I went back to ancient times in china. Cool stuff.

Went off to have a ktv-bonding session with the couch surfer. Assimilating into the lifestyle of a local. Ate a very nice bowl of dumpling soup for supper before going home to sleep.


Pre-sleep period was bad. My fault. Bad start. 

End of day thought: Despite the semi-heart attack that we had in the day, I really like the bike renting system that they had. It really provides a lot of convenience and leisure. Its good for encouraging people to exercise too. I pity the system will not work in Singapore.