Hangzhou

Today we said goodbye to Shanghai and hello to Hangzhou. Mike had recommended that we spend a day or two here as it is known as “Heaven on Earth.” Mike had attended school in Hangzhou so he graciously offered to help us plan this leg of our trip.

To get from Shanghai to Hangzhou we took the high speed train and arrived a short 45 minutes after our departure. Our top speed was 350km/hr.




 Once there, we spent the day walking around West Lake and eating delicious food pre-picked out for us by Mike. (we were sent to Hangzhou with directions to various restaurants (completed with recommended dishes at each one).  The directions were great, although our one down fall was we kept referring to a VERY outdated map from our hotel which led us to become lost several times during our short stay in Hangzhou.
The lake was beautiful and it was fun to ride the boat to one of the islands in the middle. The only downside was that it was close to 90F, a temperature my body has not seen in several years. I thought I was going to die and am pretty sure I only survived due to the numerous ice cream stands we visited along our short walk.











Lost



Sean with our "trusty map"

One of the only chilled beverages we could drink in China

Delicious Dumpling soup.  If only it wasn't 90 degrees outside.






Boat ride to one of the Islands





Map of the Island







Map of West Lake

KFC was EVERYWHERE!

After spending ALL day in the sun, we made our way to dinner at a restaurant pre-picked out for us.  We decided to be adventurous and order off the menu ourselves.  We ended up with a type of hot pot (that reminded me a LOT of fondue).  There was a large pot of boiling broth in the center of our table which we cooked all of our own food in.  We did pretty well pointing to items on the menu except for the prawns.  They arrived at our tables, with sticks shoved through them, kicking their tails around.  I QUICKLY made Sean cook them to put them out of their misery and refuse to leave the restaurant until they had all been eaten (by him, not me).  I was slightly traumatized after this and was a little more hesitant to blindly order off of menus in the future.

The menu

Poor prawns...