Hangzhou: City Of Heaven and Love.

Last year February- not long after my Chinese New Year's Trip at the Jings, W and I went to Hangzhou for a day trip. It's definitely our very first visit the Zhejiang province and we were amused by how diverse and beautiful China is. W and I had to buy our tickets twice btw because the English counter speaking person couldn't differentiate between morning and evening #classicchina (¯―¯٥) But yeah, it was W's mistake using higher level of English, he admitted LOL! We showed up in the train station at night and the immigration ladies at the front of the station told us the train has left in the morning. We were like wtf?! That was such a cricket-chirp moment for the both of us. Luckily the ticket is CNY73, not like CNY553. So we bought another ticket and left the next morning. We booked a private tour via Hangzhou Private Tour (click the link and contact them via wechat if you're interested. They reply really quick via wechat! But Email will do too, I think.) and we did their One Day Essence Tour package; West Lake, Fish Viewing @ Flower Pond, Lingyin Temple, Meijiawu Tea Plantation and The Song Dynasty Imperial Street. We met up with our tour Guide, John. Driver and lunch included btw. So we were off our first destination, The West Lake.

Our real ticket to Hangzhou :))

We stopped at the KFC nearby the West Lake to get some breakfast on the go. Had KFC wrap, it was effin good (no food pic, sorry). We end up eating our breakfast near a bridge with beautiful scenery. West Lake definitely made me and W appreciate the nature and the mother earth even more. We will never find this kind of beauty anywhere else in the world. No wonder everybody keep telling us to go to the West Lake. After the breakfast, we saw the broken bridge, we rode a ferry! John offered us to enter each islands in the lake but they're all so packed and we're like.. Nahhh. It was a very pleasant ferry ride. We talked a lot and we also took a lot of pictures haha. Fyi, John often brings his clients (Chinese tourists) to Europe during the holidays. Btw, this West Lake witnessed a romantic love story from the ancient time called Legend of The White Snake (click link to read the story).

Bonsai at the entrance

Our stunning breakfast spot.

Beautiful West Lake.

One of the boats available. We used ferry. 

Another type.

View from one of the islands located at the lake.

Hello from the boat! :D

Meet our tour guide, John! :D

Pretty fallen flower petals.

Duck swimming around the West Lake.

After a nice and relaxing ferry ride, we were driven to the Fish Ponds. Yes, fish ponds to watch some fishes LOL! It sounds silly but it's definitely worth it. There were countless of fishes in each ponds. It was pretty nice to see them. Fun times when W decided to pop out his water resistant xiao mi case and dip the camera into the pond. Caught attentions of the passerby though haha. That one fucking laowai :))

Abundant fish :O

Don't you wish your backyard looks like this? I do.

I just seen heaven.

After a relaxing yet rather boring fish viewing, we set off to the LingYin Temple that is located at a mountain. So, LingYin Temple is one of he largest and the wealthiest Buddhist temple in China. There are pagodas and scenic sites as well as gift shops to bring some knick knacks home.W bought a flute that can imitate the sound of birds haha! Classic W. Our ticket fee is included in the tour price, but after asking John about how much it costs to go inside, it's 75 kuai each (kuai means RMB or CNY). Free entrance for John as he has a legit tour guide identification. The 75 kuai worth the trip, though as it covers everything and the Lingyin scenic area is huge and has tons of things to offer such as the temple, the sage, the hall, the cave etc. Once we reached the the temple, W and I both learned from John that here in the temple, people paid shit loads in order to enter the special area to get a special blessing from Buddha where the monk prepare a ritual for them. Each person paid like CNY2000. Hory sheet! Worst thing is when the monks left for lunch time, then the janitors have to be the one doing the ritual for the pilgrims. After immersing in a deep conversation, the 3 of us agree that it's not worth it if the monks are not the one who did the ritual for them, it's not as spiritual.

That God statue eerily staring at the lady.

One of the little pagodas around the Lingyin area.

How my stomach looks after Indian buffet.

No one thought people could carve this many Buddhas on the cave outer part.

More Buddhas inside the cave. Noice. Look how ancient that is.

One busy temple. Prolly the busiest we've visited so far.

W's hair when it's still short. You have no idea how long his hair is now.

Golden Buddha statue.

More pagoda.

tianxi something something.

After having all the fun in Lingyin Temple, we were driven to a local restaurant that is located not that far away from our destination afterwards, the Meijiawu tea plantation. The restaurant is packed as hell when we got there, our driver was struggling to find some space in the parking lot so we were told to get off first. The place does look very famous with the local and has authentic local taste as I spotted tons of locals and foreigners as well. We were given a menu while we were waiting so we can order the food right away after we're seated. We ordered 4 dishes but one didn't arrive. John was a bit disappointed as his fish didn't arrive and he eagerly wanted us to try it, he said it's the best shit around LOL! Service was really slow that afternoon though. We shared every single dishes together. W and I refused to eat if our driver and John didn't eat hahaha. They have worked so hard and they deserve the same amount of food too. Of course the food bill is paid by W and me. It wasn't that expensive since we find living in Shanghai is very expensive.

Mugs.

The restaurant we went to.

W with our menu :3

This thing is effin nice. If you love tteok/nian gao, you'll love this shit. Best thing ever.

Some soy chicken. I wasn't a fan as I'm pretty picky

Some bokchoy with tofu skin. Not baaaad.

After a pretty filling meal, (well, not really. We wanted to order more but the service was too slow so we were like nah fukk it let's go haha). The journey to the plantation is pretty long and it was nice to see the life at higher ground, all the shops, houses near the plantation. So lively and natural, greens everywhere. Feels like a very busy modern village to me. Once we reached the plantation, we were led into a room where a lady explained and did a demo about green tea. so, the green tea detoxifies and cleans toxins right away. They diluted it. It was awesome to watch it. We learned that the first harvest on April is the best quality and the most expensive one. Then comes the summer harvest, still good quality and will do the job although not the best. The tea plantation that we visited is for Longjing Green Tea, apparently the one of the most famous green tea in China. We had some free green tea during our stay there. I love their green tea, even W who deeply hates green tea changed his mind about it hahaha.

The kind of car we were in.

The tea plantation life.

*inserts Indonesian joke* Pucuk.. Pucuk..

We're here Meijiawu Tea Plantation.

The pans used to roast the tea leaves.

Clothes that are worn for the tea pluckers.

I can only identify the word for tea. LOL!

Idk who that guy is supposed to be. The statue, I mean.

April harvest example.

After a pleasant stay at the tea plantation, we have to continue our journey. The journey only took 20 minutes. We reached there before the sunset. So it was a very nice setting. Loved it! I'm very surprised by how close the the tourist sites are with each other. So, nothing to see in there other than bamboos and nature. W and I decided to hike and found somekind of a grave, we think.. It was a fun hike :) John told us, this bamboo path is often used for movie shooting for the typical martial arts Chinese movies as they tend to fight in bamboo area lol.

Welcome to the bamboo path.

Held back myself so much for not jumping into that pond.

Robo-Willem :P

Grave?

We still have no idea why the well is sealed.

#ootd @ Yunji Bamboo Path.

It was quite of a journey to the imperial street from the bamboo path. We spotted Six Harmonies pagoda on our way though. We wanted to go there but it's not included in our package and we're leaving tomorrow morning so eh.. Luckily, our hostel is in the imperial street area so it was very convenient for us to walk to the hostel. The area was really modern (near our hostel) with some classic touch. The further it is from our hostel, the more traditional the buildings look.

Our final destination of the tour, welcome to the imperial street.

After the tour ended, John told us that we can visit the City God Temple and it is a walking distance from our hostel. So we went there. It was quite a fun and long hike. We tried to reach the top before the sun sets so we can watch the sun set from the top of the temple. 10 kuai entrance fee required. So, City God temple is a temple specially built for the City God aka deities to watch over and protect the city with its people and keeps the peace in his/her territory. The temple rather looks so simple but the pavilion is so majestic! Me likey. We went to the highest level of the pavilion and watch the sun set facing the West Lake. Yes, people. It was very beautiful and breath taking. I wish I have that view everyday.

A hammer shark dancing the Hula dance. Does look like it, right?

 Posing with the tickets and the views. Yes, people.. West Lake at the background.

One word; Heaven.

City God Pavillion.

Them details.

Oh, Hello :)

Best place to enjoy Hangzhou's sunset.

Pure candid.

#rasamodel

I told him to look away as he doesn't know what to do with his pose.

#rasamodel 2

:*

Facing the jungle area.

Hangzhou at night. Facing towards the city.

We found a vegetarian restaurant. But they're closed so we can only order drinks.

They also have museum in this pavilion building. How cool is that?!

Front look of the majestic City God Pavillion.

The City God Pavillion is definitely the highlight of the whole Hangzhou trip. LOL! The highlight is not even on the tour package. After the sun set and early night watching at the Pavilion, we went down the mountain to explore more of the imperial street as didn't explore it enough on our way to the City God Temple. The street was busy and fun. W and I saw some people made some mochis, quirky stores and awesome street performances. So glad that we took that path back to the hostel. Had McD for dinner hehe.

Situation at the imperial street at night.

Totoro knick knacks :3

Beckoning cat/ maneki neko.

Characters that I can't read.

Then the morning came, after shower and morning brekkie at McD, we caught the train back to Shanghai. It was quite a walk from our hostel to the nearest metro station. But it was a really nice morning walk with most of the shops still closed. Definitely one of the best morning walk we've just because the view was nice. Didn't take us long to reach the bullet train station. We left Hangzhou happily and would definitely come back because the city is just too beautiful. Thank you for the hospitality, Hangzhou!

Our train back to Shanghai the next morning.

BYE! :D