Hangzhou

An interesting week and a half!  This week has sort of got away from me a bit.  

Last week the children were only in for 3 days, as we had parent meetings/training on Thursday and Friday.  The EAL team all went to the Minghang school for 2 days of English training.  The course was good, but it was just 2 days of watching a lady talk from 8-4. There was time given for reflecting, but no activities, so I really struggled in the afternoons.  The information we gained was useful for the most part, but it was a bit frustrating that our English coordinator couldn't be there, as my team has very little power to actually make any changes to English, other than with our small groups.  Parts didn't apply to us too, and of course, as with all training, every other way of doing it is wrong, so we just felt a bit like everything we were doing was bad, which it definitely isn't.  Just an overload of information really, but interesting all the same.

Matt had a parents day on Thursday from 8.30am -8.30pm!  Crazy!

But on Friday night, at least we had our trip to look forward to. We were off to Hangzhou!

Hangzhou is a large city about an hour from Shanghai on the (first class) train.  The city itself held no interest for us; it was the lake we were after, and what a treat it was, especially for two people craving a bit of the outdoors. There aren't many green spaces in Shanghai.

We were staying in the fabulous Shangri La hotel, which was right on the lake front.  We arrived on Friday night, but it was about 9pm by the time we got there, so we just went to the hotel bar for a couple of wines/whiskies.

On Saturday morning, we were up and out by 9, and cycling along the lake path.  We realised that we could only cycle about 500m before the path becomes pedestrian, so that plan didn't really work, but the walk was lovely anyway.

So, in the picture below, the Shangri La hotel is at the top near the island.  We set off over the island/causeway, stopped for an hours gondola ride by the causeway, then continued walking around the lake.  We ran into the Deputy Head of the school, while we were there.  We were so relaxed from our boat ride that she absolutely terrified us, by sneaking up on us.  We stopped for a cheeky Starbucks hot chocolate and muffin somewhere, and then much later for some dumpling soup. Yum!

We went into 2 pagodas (pagodas celebrate the emperor, temples celebrate Buddha).  The first one was lovely and peaceful, with fabulous wall paintings.

Dumpling soup!

The second pagoda we went to was a lot more touristy, what with it being up on top of a hill, with fabulous views of the lake and surrounding countryside.  We were grabbed by an old Chinese lady at the top for a photo (this happened quite a lot throughout the day).

The inside of the temple had different decorations on each level (5 levels in total).  You could even see the foundations of the original temple at ground level.  These beautiful wood carvings were my favourite.  They ran around the entire wall, and were so intricately carved.  Just beautiful.

Our hotel had bunnies in the garden for the kids (and me) to play with.  This baby lop ear was just so cute!

On Saturday evening we had a few drinks in the hotel bar, which had live music.  Then we went for dinner at the hotel's Italian restaurant.  We shared a fish plate (with delicious scallops) and a Korean beef pizza.  We have worked out that this is the way to eat in China, because they just bring the food out when it's ready - starters come after mains, drinks arrive with dessert, and you watch the other person eat, then they watch you.  Share things - this is a valuable tip, so pay attention!

We went back to the hotel bar after dinner, content to just be in the 5* setting, and enjoy each others company.

On Sunday, we checked out of the hotel early, and walked back down the really long causeway that crosses the lake.  That is how far we made it on Saturday, and we were determined to walk around the whole lake by the end of the weekend.  There was a great food stall at the opposite end of the causeway to our hotel, so we worked up an appetite on the 30 minute walk, then feasted on these AMAZING spicy potatos!  We also shared a bread thingy with meat in it, and a pastry that we watched them pipe green tea favour cream into.  Delicious.  Green tea really works as a sweet flavour.  We discovered that at the Chocolate factory with the green tea hot chocolate!

The other side of the lake was a lot quieter, and forest-covered, unlike the mountains and hills of the other side of the lake.  We had to cycle some bits because there was no path next to the lake, only a fairly main road, but actually the cycle was quite a nice change.  We went for a green tea in a cafe (turns out I don't really like actual green tea, just the flavour in sweet things!).

After we had finished walking around the lake, we picked up our bags from the hotel, and headed to the 'silk road'.  Hangzhou is famous for it's silk, so I just had to have a look - the fabric and clothes were beautiful, if you knew the right shops to look it - lots of imitation silk.

We headed to the station for our 4.30pm train.  It was only an hour; the metro the other end was longer, just to get across Shanghai - that takes nearly 2 hours!

It was such a wonderful weekend.  I could definitely go back there and explore the tea fields and mountains a bit more.