Hangzhou

After leaving SIAS, we went to Hangzhou, Shanghai and Suzhou, spending a day in each city. Of the 3, Hangzhou was definitely our favorite. We didn't even see that much of the city, but the part we did see, was really beautiful and clean. The biggest attraction in Hangzhou is the famed West Lake. It's a very big lake with several islands in the middle. We spent most of the day riding our bikes around the parts we were allowed to, walking in the places we couldn't ride and riding a boat to a couple of the islands. Yes, this first picture is staged, but it still looks cool :-) One problem we had was when the boat did not take us back to where we had parked our bikes. The lady we bought the tickets from told us that it would come back to the point we departed from, but..."sorry, unfortune!" is what we were told on the other side of the lake. So we had to figure out how to get back to the bikes (it would've taken too long to just walk). After some help from a stranger and the use of our map, we finally got back to our bikes. Another problem we had was when our waitress at the restaurant we were eating lunch at tried to tell us we ordered one of the most expensive dishes - which we didn't do. Finally they took it back and didn't make us pay for it, but I don't think we'd be welcomed back again! Despite those two mishaps, we still had a great day in Hangzhou! :-)