Hangzhou

We came here yesterday by high speed train from the garden city of Suzhou, travelling at around 300 kph.

When we arrived I went to the ticket office to buy tickets for our next train trip in a week, and Graeme went to queue for a taxi. What an experience! The ticket hall had 30 counters each with a queue of about 15-20 people. I queued for the one bilingual counter, only to get to the front and discover the server did not speak English. I managed to convey what I wanted to then discover you cannot book more than 5 days ahead. So no tickets.

When I got to the taxi queue it was at least 100 m long with about 400 people in a crush. To reach Graeme who was near the front with the luggage I had to push my way through the crush of people. All somewhat stressful. So many people!

Today we, and the hordes, strolled and then cycled around the world famous West Lake, visiting sights along the way. It is absolutely delightful. We used the free government bikes that are located throughout the city. You pay a $50 deposit and get a card that unlocks the bikes. Sounds great but .... All the bikes have poor brakes, badly in need of adjustment, and all the seats are ridiculously low and unable to be adjusted. Still it was fun cruising round the lake.Most photos are on the camera but here are a few taken with the phone.