From Shanghai we took a bus to Hangzhou. It's a short hop and the bus is much less stressful than trains, as you can just buy and get on. In railway stations you face a ticket buying scrum every time. Here's an example of the scrum at the ticket office in Changsha - they're all like this. It takes at least 20 minutes to get to the front of the counter, and you can rarely get the train time you want (every ticket is specific to a train in China - there is no online booking and you can only buy from the town you are in, not from a future destination, so as travellers, trying to buy a ticket on the day you want to go often means all seats are booked out. As soon as you arrive somewhere, you buy your onward ticket.)
We wanted to get a train from Hangzhou to Changsha and so on the Lonely Planet's advice, asked the hostel to book the next ticket for us. They said they couldn't due to "government regulations" in Zhejiang province. So we went to the tourist office, which the LP informed us would book tickets for us. They wouldn't, and told us to go to the train booking office. We searched for hours, even getting further instructions, and couldn't find it. Eventually found one and with the aid of the LP's language section tried to work out when we could get a sleeper to Changsha. "Tomorrow hard sleeper?" we asked. "Mei You" (not have) was the reply. "Monday?" We asked, "Mei You". "Tuesday?" "Mei You", Wednesday? "Mei You". At this point our language skills failed us and the word "When" - meaning "When can we get a sodding train to Changsha then?" got a shrug. We established there were hard seats available tomorrow but Steve put his foot down and said "I am NOT taking a hard seat overnight". Much argument ensued but in the end we went to the railway station to try our luck in the scrum. Luckily for us, our language failure came to our aid. By mistake Steve said "today" instead of "tomorrow" and miraculously a soft sleeper berth was available (this is the best and most expensive sleeper available). So our time in Hangzhou was curtailed. In all we spent about 18 hours in Hangzhou, around 8 sleeping, 6 trying to get a rail ticket and 4 sightseeing!
I had by mistake left my PJs in Shanghai and as we were in a dorm, it was imperative I got some more. I had up to this point avoided clothes shops in China as I had assumed that nothing at all would fit me in China, where the average size is probably a UK size 6. We located the nightwear area of town (shops in China are located by district: sportswear, antiques, shoes etc.) and went into a shop that didn't look too pricey. I found a simple short / vest top combo that I thought would do and asked the assistant (hovering over me like a bad smell as they all do the moment you enter a shop) what size it was. "No size" she said. I asked if it would fit me. She shook her head and led me to the elephant section, containing floral print matron outfits which I have seen elderly chinese ladies wandering the streets in at night. I burst out laughing in embarrassment.
"I can't wear that!" I said. In the end we compromised on a mickey / minnie mouse t shirt and white pantalons. Steve couldn't conceal his sniggering when I wore them...
We wanted to get a train from Hangzhou to Changsha and so on the Lonely Planet's advice, asked the hostel to book the next ticket for us. They said they couldn't due to "government regulations" in Zhejiang province. So we went to the tourist office, which the LP informed us would book tickets for us. They wouldn't, and told us to go to the train booking office. We searched for hours, even getting further instructions, and couldn't find it. Eventually found one and with the aid of the LP's language section tried to work out when we could get a sleeper to Changsha. "Tomorrow hard sleeper?" we asked. "Mei You" (not have) was the reply. "Monday?" We asked, "Mei You". "Tuesday?" "Mei You", Wednesday? "Mei You". At this point our language skills failed us and the word "When" - meaning "When can we get a sodding train to Changsha then?" got a shrug. We established there were hard seats available tomorrow but Steve put his foot down and said "I am NOT taking a hard seat overnight". Much argument ensued but in the end we went to the railway station to try our luck in the scrum. Luckily for us, our language failure came to our aid. By mistake Steve said "today" instead of "tomorrow" and miraculously a soft sleeper berth was available (this is the best and most expensive sleeper available). So our time in Hangzhou was curtailed. In all we spent about 18 hours in Hangzhou, around 8 sleeping, 6 trying to get a rail ticket and 4 sightseeing!
I had by mistake left my PJs in Shanghai and as we were in a dorm, it was imperative I got some more. I had up to this point avoided clothes shops in China as I had assumed that nothing at all would fit me in China, where the average size is probably a UK size 6. We located the nightwear area of town (shops in China are located by district: sportswear, antiques, shoes etc.) and went into a shop that didn't look too pricey. I found a simple short / vest top combo that I thought would do and asked the assistant (hovering over me like a bad smell as they all do the moment you enter a shop) what size it was. "No size" she said. I asked if it would fit me. She shook her head and led me to the elephant section, containing floral print matron outfits which I have seen elderly chinese ladies wandering the streets in at night. I burst out laughing in embarrassment.
"I can't wear that!" I said. In the end we compromised on a mickey / minnie mouse t shirt and white pantalons. Steve couldn't conceal his sniggering when I wore them...
I discovered what the Chinese have for brekky (thanks Jane!) - Congee. Here's a breakfast I had in Hangzhou. Steamed buns, congee and pickles. Congee is rice porridge. It was OK, the buns were nice, but the pickles made me feel physically sick. Some jam would have gone down nicely but the Chinese don't really do sweet things.
Hangzhou is very famous in China for West Lake, a landscaped lake with myriad footpaths, bridges, pagodas, stepping stones, and pools which looks a bit like the traditional willow pattern. A day can easily be passed wandering. After the ticket buying we now had less than a day but managed to see Red Carp pond and emulated many snap happy Chinese tourists on our walk. We saw some bridal couples having their photos taken against the beautiful backdrop (clearly not their wedding day, but their wedding photo day). We hired tiny bikes and tried to cycle around. They were so small I actually missed the seat and hit the back carry rack when I first tried to sit down. It was almost unbearably hot and humid. Just sitting still left us drenched with sweat yet the Chinese wander around in Lycra tops. There has to be some kind of different physiology there.
We've met two 3 year old boys over the past couple of days. The first was sharing our soft sleeper compartment with us and his parents. He was well behaved, smiled at us a lot, pointed at things often and said "La!" - haven't found out what this means yet. He also vehemently corrected my Chinese pronunciation of Changsha to ChangSHA (sound angry as you say it and you won't be far wrong. I am just too easy going (no sniggering at the back there!) to be able to pronounce Chinese correctly). Dad had the top bunk and messed around on the laptop the whole time, Mum had childminding duties and shared a bottom bunk with the little boy. There wasn't enough space for the two of them and she got very little sleep.
The second little boy was hanging around in a restaurant in Changsha. He seemed to be a fixture of the place. Supernanny would have had a field day with him. He pulled tablecloths, shouted a lot, ran around madly and was generally over-coddled by the legion of waitresses. He was so loud that I couldn't hear what the waitress was offering us to eat.
Changsha is definitely not on the tourist trail, ours or anyone else's. We only intended to stay a couple of hours on route to Zhangjiajie but the Chinese rail system failed us (no sleepers available on the same day) and so we've spent about 40 hours here. However, we've had quite a nice time. It was boiling when we arrived and sweat was literally pouring off us so we crumbled and went to a "5" star hotel. Not 5 by western standards but very nice nonetheless, complete with gloriously frigid air con, buffet breakfast, slightly camp but very friendly bellboy Dean who went out of his way to secure us a taxi, concierge service that managed to post Steve's excess baggage on to Australia, and, wonder of wonders, a swimming pool. All for only about 42 pounds for the room.... Bargain.
We managed to see a massive Mao statue while in Changsha and did a spot of shopping since my one pair of trousers are wearing out. I was a bit nervous after the pyjamas but found an army surplus store where I was able to go into men's sizes. Due to the lack of tourist traffic the people here seem genuinely interested in us, haven't even thought of trying to trick us and a few have come up to us to practise their English - and not in a scammy way as you would have in Shanghai or Beijing.
Next stop is the hard sleeper to Zhangjiajie. It's the gateway town for Wulingyuan, which is supposed to be fantastic. We'll see...
Hangzhou is very famous in China for West Lake, a landscaped lake with myriad footpaths, bridges, pagodas, stepping stones, and pools which looks a bit like the traditional willow pattern. A day can easily be passed wandering. After the ticket buying we now had less than a day but managed to see Red Carp pond and emulated many snap happy Chinese tourists on our walk. We saw some bridal couples having their photos taken against the beautiful backdrop (clearly not their wedding day, but their wedding photo day). We hired tiny bikes and tried to cycle around. They were so small I actually missed the seat and hit the back carry rack when I first tried to sit down. It was almost unbearably hot and humid. Just sitting still left us drenched with sweat yet the Chinese wander around in Lycra tops. There has to be some kind of different physiology there.
We've met two 3 year old boys over the past couple of days. The first was sharing our soft sleeper compartment with us and his parents. He was well behaved, smiled at us a lot, pointed at things often and said "La!" - haven't found out what this means yet. He also vehemently corrected my Chinese pronunciation of Changsha to ChangSHA (sound angry as you say it and you won't be far wrong. I am just too easy going (no sniggering at the back there!) to be able to pronounce Chinese correctly). Dad had the top bunk and messed around on the laptop the whole time, Mum had childminding duties and shared a bottom bunk with the little boy. There wasn't enough space for the two of them and she got very little sleep.
The second little boy was hanging around in a restaurant in Changsha. He seemed to be a fixture of the place. Supernanny would have had a field day with him. He pulled tablecloths, shouted a lot, ran around madly and was generally over-coddled by the legion of waitresses. He was so loud that I couldn't hear what the waitress was offering us to eat.
Changsha is definitely not on the tourist trail, ours or anyone else's. We only intended to stay a couple of hours on route to Zhangjiajie but the Chinese rail system failed us (no sleepers available on the same day) and so we've spent about 40 hours here. However, we've had quite a nice time. It was boiling when we arrived and sweat was literally pouring off us so we crumbled and went to a "5" star hotel. Not 5 by western standards but very nice nonetheless, complete with gloriously frigid air con, buffet breakfast, slightly camp but very friendly bellboy Dean who went out of his way to secure us a taxi, concierge service that managed to post Steve's excess baggage on to Australia, and, wonder of wonders, a swimming pool. All for only about 42 pounds for the room.... Bargain.
We managed to see a massive Mao statue while in Changsha and did a spot of shopping since my one pair of trousers are wearing out. I was a bit nervous after the pyjamas but found an army surplus store where I was able to go into men's sizes. Due to the lack of tourist traffic the people here seem genuinely interested in us, haven't even thought of trying to trick us and a few have come up to us to practise their English - and not in a scammy way as you would have in Shanghai or Beijing.Next stop is the hard sleeper to Zhangjiajie. It's the gateway town for Wulingyuan, which is supposed to be fantastic. We'll see...
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