I carefully planned this trip to Hangzhou before departure, but in reality, there were some deviations from the plan. In this article, I will briefly analyze the reasons behind these choices.
1 Camera
Since the entire itinerary involved a lot of walking, I gave up the heavy 50D and brought the lightweight NEX-5 instead. I chose it because it features an APS-C sensor and the lens has relatively high resolution, unlike the kit lenses from other brands that often produce a hazy look. Compared to the GF2, it has a much higher screen resolution, significantly better build quality, faster autofocus, and superior image quality. Moreover, the GF2’s touchscreen is resistive and does not support multi-touch, making operation quite inconvenient; its touchscreen feels more like a gimmick. All photos in this series were taken with the NEX-5 using an 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens.
2 Accommodation
I chose the Hanting All Seasons Hotel at Wulinmen. For details, see this post:Hangzhou Hanting All Seasons Hotel Wulinmen
3 General Itinerary
Day 1:
Arrived in Hangzhou at noon. I took the G7307 departing from Shanghai Hongqiao at 10:00. This train makes no intermediate stops, and the entire journey takes only 45 minutes.
The arrival time was just right for lunch. I took bus 188 to Wulinmen; route 188 runs very frequently, with a bus every 3 minutes, and the non-air-conditioned fare is only 1 yuan. After checking into the hotel, I unloaded everything from my backpack and set out unburdened. It felt just as enjoyable as strolling around Shanghai. For lunch, I went to the highest-rated restaurant in the entire Wulin Square area on Dianping: Busan Cuisine…
The ambiance was nice and uncrowded. The set meal was identical to the one in Shanghai, except the pumpkin porridge wasn’t nearly as good as Shanghai’s, though the sweetened beans and seaweed were just as delicious.
I ordered the special dishes listed on the Dianping coupon: beef short ribs and pork collar, both basically half price.
Grilling meat is truly a skill~~~ Whether it tastes good depends entirely on the person grilling it~~~~
Beverage: Fruit Tea
After lunch, I took a bus to Wushan Square, then walked from Hefang Street to Nanshan Road, then to Hubin Road, and finally back to the hotel. The total distance was about 6km—a route I almost always take whenever I visit Hangzhou. For details, see this post:Hangzhou Hefang Street / West Lake / Grandma’s Home
Day 2:
This was the highlight of the trip: visiting Longjing and hiking to Jiuxi. For details, see this post:Hangzhou Longjing Tea Tasting / Longjing Restaurant
And:Hangzhou Nine Creeks and Eighteen Gullies
I returned much earlier than expected. After getting back to the hotel, I took a shower and headed out to find some food, only to discover it had started raining—quite heavily too. So I had to retreat to the hotel and watch Chinese TV dramas…
Day 3:
After breakfast in the morning, I checked out. The express checkout was very convenient—you just drop the key card into the small box at the front desk and you’re good to go~~~~ Then I took a bus to Siyanjing~~ and had lunch at Jiangnanyi.
For details, see this post:Hangzhou Jiangnanyi
After leaving Jiangnanyi, I took a bus to the Friends Theme Club.
For details, see this post:Hangzhou Friends Theme Club
Then I took a bus back to Wulin Square and visited the plaza next to the Global Center.
The Global Center, with its peculiar shape, I originally thought was a hotel, but it’s actually just an office building. There aren’t many shops nearby either; it’s a bit of a pity this place isn’t utilized more commercially~~~~~~ From left to right are the Zhejiang Provincial Museum Wulin Branch
Main Building
Xinyuan International Cinema, featuring IMAX~~
and the Zhejiang Science and Technology Museum
Seeing that I still had some time, I wandered around the Zhejiang Provincial Museum. Its main venue is on Gushan Hill, but honestly, there isn’t much inside. The first floor houses the History Hall, the second floor is the Zhejiang Revolutionary History Memorial Hall, and the third floor features categorized exhibitions of calligraphy, painting, handicrafts, and ancient guqins.
For dinner, I went to Chamonix Tea & Cafe and had a bowl of noodles—very affordable~~~~
Then I continued on bus 188 to Chengzhan Station. During the evening rush hour, it took 45 minutes just to cover five stops—the traffic was absolutely killing me~~~ It really would be better to have a subway system; who knows when Hangzhou’s metro will finally be completed~~~~ Also, all buses in Hangzhou are self-service ticketing with fares ranging from 1, 1.5, 2, 3, to 5 yuan, etc., and since there are no convenience stores to exchange coins, you really have to hunt everywhere for change~~~ At 7 PM, I took the G7326 back to Shanghai Hongqiao, which took one hour. Returning to Shanghai with its transit cards and subway system felt so refreshing.
4 Navigation to Previous Hangzhou Blog Posts
Friends planning a trip to Hangzhou can refer to these~~
- April 2011:
- Hangzhou Hanting All Seasons Hotel Wulinmen
- Hangzhou Hefang Street / West Lake / Grandma’s Home
- Hangzhou Longjing Tea Tasting / Longjing Restaurant
- Hangzhou Nine Creeks and Eighteen Gullies
- Hangzhou Jiangnanyi
- Hangzhou Friends Theme Club
- Hangzhou Linyu Garden Restaurant
- 3 Days in Hangzhou: Xintiandi / Starbucks
- 3 Days in Hangzhou: Grandma’s Home / Zhiweiguan / Cross-Strait Coffee
- 3 Days in Hangzhou: Xixi
December 2010
June 2009
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