Beautiful Hangzhou...

Ever heard of Hainan Airlines? We neither..... but we flew with them from Xi'an to Hangzhou (approx 2h). Flight was o.k.

Flight with Hainan Airlines / Flug mit Hainan Airlines
We arrived safely in Hangzhou where we had about 1 and a half day to spend. Hangzhou is famous for its lake, its beautiful women and Longjing Tea (kind of green tea). After arriving we took a taxi to our Hotel (a recommendation by Lucy - Thank you!): the Orange Hotel, is a pleasant change. Although it is a Chinese Hotel the entire make up of the room is really cool and modern and staff is very friendly and actually helpful there. Mishell, as thoroughly as she always does things, she decided to really test the staff of the hotel by clogging up the toilet (she needed to poo). But even this challenge they solved in a very efficient and calm manner! Well done!

First things first....we then took a taxi to bring us to one of the Lonely Planet recommended restaurants where we tried some of the local dishes (e.g. "grandma-potato", "dongbo-pork").

For lunch we tried one of the local specialities - Fried potatos with spring onions / Zum Mittagessen haben wir eine lokale Spezialität probiert - Frittierte Kartoffeln mit Frühlingszwiebeln

With our stomachs refilled we walked around the tourist street of Hangzhou, where there are lots of little shops, bakeries, tea-houses, and local speciality stores. Pasci got himself a nice coffee from C85 (a Taiwanese bakery) and Mishell got herself something called "Dragon beared" which is peanut filled candy.

Pasci made friends with the mascot of C85 / Pasci hat Freundschaft geschlossen mit dem Masskottchen von C85

Always on the outlook for decoration for our upcoming chinese wedding / Immer auf der Suche nach Deko-Sachen für unsere bevorstehende Chinesische Hochzeit

Tourist street in Hangzhou - filled with lots of small traditional shops / Touristenstrasse in Hangzhou - es hat viele kleine traditionelle Läden

Throughout Hangzhou we noticed that most people are riding the same or similar bicycles and there were loads of these bike-stands around. We figured out that there is some kind of free bicycle renting going on in this town. Unfortunately for us, it was aready too late on that day to register otherwise we could have cycled to the lake. Hmmmm.....so we had to walk.

Mishell - 'how to eat a dragon beared candy' / Mishell - 'wie man eine Drachenbart Süssigkeit isst'

And the after effects.... / Und die Nachwirkungen

Pasci enjoys them as well / Pasci schmecken sie auch gut

Peek-a-boo

The lake and the entire garden around it are REALLY beautiful. The sceneray at the lake with the mountains in the background and the Pagoda are definitely one of the best in China.

Mishell was inspired by the beautiful greenery around her / Mishell war inspiriert von der schönen Landschaft

Beautifully situated Pagoda / Wunderschön gelegene Pagoda

Romantic times at the Hangzhou lake / Romantische Momente am Hangzhou See

Mishell the super-model :) / Mishell das Supermodel :)

Beautiful day and amazing sunset... / Schöner Tag und wunderschöner Sonnenuntergang..

YEAH - cool baby!!!

It was a loooong day wih lots of walking involved...therefore we were again extra-hungry that night. We were lucky with our choice of restaurant which serverd another local speciality: the 'beggars-chicken' which is chicken wrapped in lotus leaves and baked in a clay pot! Very delicious! Greedy as we are we got ourselves as well a really tasty fish stew with pickled mustard and chilli. Then we walked around some more (looking for a dessert but did not manage to find any) before we eventually returned to our Hotel.

Pasci loved the fish stew with pickeld mustard and chillig / Pasci mochte den Fisch Eintopf mit eingelegtem Senfgemüse und Chilli sehr

Pasci was happy with soooo much food around him *yummy* / Pasci war Glücklich mit soviel Essen um ihn herum *yummy*

The infamous beggars chicken - chicken wrapped in Lotus leave and baked in clay pot / Das berühmte 'Bettler Poulet' - Ein Poulet eingewickelt in einem Lotus Blatt und gebacken in einem Lehmtopf

On the way to the Hotel we came across another speciality of Hangzhou: Prawns / Auf dem nach Hause weg sahen wir eine weitere Spezialität von Hangzhou: Crevetten

The next day our train to Shanghai was leaving around lunch time - therefore there was not too much time left and we decided to have a lie-in instead (and breakfast in bed). hehe....

Breakfast in bed...very cosy! / Frühstück im Bett...sehr gemütlich!

At the station the usual procedure for getting to the waiting area: Queuing up for security check, then your bags get scanned, then (imagine always hundreds of other ppl around you) pushing and pulling your way through the waiting area.

In there you wait with millions of other chinese dudes for the announcement that you now can start to queue up. The tricky chinese know their trains and even jump up and queue up before its actually time to...and again the queue consits of lots of pushing and elbowing your way through to the platform.

Hangzhou train station / Hangzhou Bahnhof

The waiting area - packed like Sardines in a can! / Der Warteraum - Vollgepackt wie Sardinen in einer Büchse!

Finally - our train got called up....1-2-3 ruuuuuuuuuuuunnnn! / Endlich - unser Zug wurde angekündigt...1-2-3 laaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuf!

But then...oh wow, what a train! A really new and comfy train this was. Plus, in our carriage there was some VVIP dude sitting who had his own stewardesses and lots of police and army on the platform.

Modern & comfy Chinese trains.... / Moderne und komfortable Chinesische Züge...

Next stop: Shanghai!