hangzhou is a hidden gem and i'm glad i got to see it just out of pure accident. its only half an hour away from shanghai, but sadly i didn't have enough time to go there. the train journey (even went over yangtze river) there took about 22 hours, but the hostel was really worth it. i only paid like 15€ for two nights and it was super luxurious, with those crazy chinese toilets as well.
anyways, i made my way down to the city lake (i'm getting really good at taking the metro now, it wasn't that easy at first), expecting not much more than a nice calm walk along the shore. turned out that it was actually the touristic center of hangzhou, with a bunch of pagodas, island ferries and beautiful parks. there were some domestic tourists, but thankfully not too many. the weather was absolutely scorching, maybe even worse than in xi'an, so i was glad to have some rainfall which cooled the place down nicely.
i would've loved to spend more time in hangzhou, but my onward trains were already booked, so i figured i'd at least go downtown to see the skyline at night. the pictures don't convey it, but it was crazy. in that moment, it really felt like a different chapter from central asia had begun. i've made some real distance now and only just realized that i'm already further east than bali. literally so close to the pacific, it's crazy.Read more
Jul 24–26, 2024 in China ⋅ 🌙 29 °C