My Adventures Across China

[AndrewJin]

I will continuously update on my hometown Wuhan in my previous thread 'My CRH Trip From Shanghai Back To Wuhan', once some new photos are captured.
My CRH trip from Shanghai back to Wuhan

Prologue
I've been traveling as an independent backpacker after high school. Once provided with time, no matter three days or half a month, I will step out of the crowed metropolitan city and settle down my restless heart. I am either on the way or en route to a new journey. I will routinely buy the latest edition of Lonely Planet's domestic provincial or city guidebook, following their paths or initiate a new route of my own.

There are so many experiences I'd like to share with you in PDF. I'll try my utmost to illustrate them using my own photos and words. It'll be a tremendous project calling for much time and your patience. Each route or site will be started with a map for you to locate them and added with some explanations and comments on urban planning, infrastructure, locals' life, culture, etc. since PDF is not a total travelogue websites.

Firstly, I will post my journeys in the last lunar year of 2014.
Here is a map showing my trace of 2014.

 

[AndrewJin]

Part 1 2014 Spring Festival Journey to Hangzhou

I spent some days during Spring Festival with my family, in Hangzhou and an adjacent classical watertown called Xitang. We began our trip on the first day of lunar January in 2014, taking a long-distance bus to Xitang from Shanghai, spending a night in Xitang. Then, we took a public bus to the nearest station called Jiaxingnan where a CRH train rode us to Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province.
p.s. some photos came from my other Hangzhou excursions all in 2014.

Here is the map about where Shanghai, Xitang and Hangzhou are located in eastern China.
(Red-shanghai; Blue-Xitang and Jiaxingnan Station; Green-Hangzhou)

A tranquil water town, Xitang, although not so tranquil during Spring Festival, one of the highest traveling seasons.

The nearest station to Xitang, called Jiaxingnan(Jinxing South). Jinxing City is famous for a sort of rice dumpling, called Zongzi ( I sincerely think English should introduce more words, not just 'dumpling' for all the stuff)

The most famous Zongzi across China, Wufangzhai Restaurant in Jiaxing.

 

[AndrewJin]

Move on to Hangzhou which I suppose you are quite familiar with. One of the ancient capitals, a paradise for Chinese but also too expensive for a person seeking a fortune there with similar living expenses as Shanghai. An apartment or house by the West Lake is priceless. Well, an excursion to Hangzhou is great as opposed to living there for a person not from Hangzhou.

A perfect traveling book called Lonely Planet-Hangzhou recommended for all my friends who speak Chinese, first-hand information, exceedingly detailed in 250 pages

Here is about Hangzhou Metro quoted from Wikipedia
Hangzhou Metro is a metro system that serves the Chinese city of Hangzhou Zhejiang and surrounding suburbs. Construction commenced in March 2006, and the first line opened on November 24, 2012.

Line 1 made Hangzhou the 17th city in the People's Republic of China to have a rapid transit system. The first line, Line 1 is 48 kilometers in length, with 30 stations, it is the longest first section of metro ever opened in China. Line 1 has a projected cost of 22.08 billion yuan. A total of 8 lines with a length of 278 km are planned.

Downtown Hangzhou

Super crowed when tons of Chinese travellers were pouring into this city

Only several minutes from the railway station to the world-renowed West Lake by Metro.

 

[Fattyacids]

The last time I visited Hangzhou, there was no HSR yet. West Lake is picturesque. Let me see if I can find the old photos. Pls post more.

 

[AndrewJin]

The last time I visited Hangzhou, there was no HSR yet. West Lake is picturesque. Let me see if I can find the old photos.

That must be years ago. I remember first time to Hangzhou in 2008, I took a 2-hour train from Shanghai to Hangzhou. Now, more than 100 trains per day for this 160km interval, super convenient if you go from Shanghai for a one-day round-trip.

 

[Fattyacids]

That must be years ago. I remember first time to Hangzhou in 2008, I took a 2-hour train from Shanghai to Hangzhou. Now, more than 100 trains per day for this 160km interval, super convenient if you go from Shanghai for a one-day round-trip.

Yes, it was the old rail terminal. I came down from Qingdao to Shanghai. Then took another 2 hrs ride to Hangzhou.

 

[Shotgunner51]

That must be years ago. I remember first time to Hangzhou in 2008, I took a 2-hour train from Shanghai to Hangzhou. Now, more than 100 trains per day for this 160km interval, super convenient if you go from Shanghai for a one-day round-trip.

I live in Shanghai, used to drive but now taking HSR to Hangzhou is much more convenient.

 

[cirr]

Hangzhou needs to speed up the construction of its metro network。

Anything less than 10 lines won't do justice to the great city。

 

[AndrewJin]

Hangzhou needs to speed up the construction of its metro network。

Anything less than 10 lines won't do justice to the great city。

the geological condition of Hangzhou is quite unstable. An accident killing more than 10 workers occurred when Line1 was constructed.

 

[AndrewJin]

I live in Shanghai, used to drive but now taking HSR to Hangzhou is much more convenient.

Yes, traffic jams on the expressway really annoying and to say nothing of the pricy toll and gasoleum

 

[AndrewJin]

Hangzhou‘s pedastrian Southern Song Imperial Street

A local international youth hostel

Hangzhou's most famous snack restaurant, offering a wide variety of local snacks as well as authentic Hangzhou cuisines. The first floor offers cheap snacks, the above several floors offer formal meals. Only 2-minute walk from the lakeside, the optimal choice for travelers.

90RMB(15 US dollar) for 3 persons, including steamed pork steam, pork wonton soup, noodle with meat and bamboo shoots，cat's ear( made from flour), sweet lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice, sweet fermented glutinous rice ball soup, spring roll, good luck and long life snail (Pomacea Canaliculata）

Longjing Shrimp in a budget restaurant chain called Grandma's where Mapo Tofu is sold 3RMB( half a US dollar). It was initiated in Hangzhou and now there are nearly 100 branches around China. Lowest price with middle-end environment

Costa Coffee by the lake

A theme park called Song Dynasty Town where a grand show called 'The Romance of the Song Dynasty' is performed . Hangzhou was the capital of Southern Song Dynasty nearly 10 centuries ago.

 

[AndrewJin]

A hiking on the mountains. There are endless hiking routes in mountainous Hangzhou which overlooks West Lake. The transport in this region is poor, limited roads, overcrowed buses and terrible traffic congestion during peak seasons. I couldn't come up witha better solution from my limited wisdom.

The starting point of my hiking path, a temple called Faxi.

The abstinence hall in this temple provides 5-RMB vegetarian food cooked by Buddhists.

5 RMB vegetarian food, you can have as much as you can if nothing is wasted.

 

[AndrewJin]

First section of my hiking path is through the bamboo forest

Then endless steps

The panorama on the summit

 

[AndrewJin]

Coming back from Hangzhou to Shanghai is easy. Two stations here are well connected by Metro. Every day, more than 100 CRH trains service from Hangzhou to Shanghai, every 5-15min from 6am to 10.30pm.

Don't forget a free bottle of Tibet Spring from Mount Nyenchen Tanglha

Waiting for my train which was a through service starting from Changsha, Central China.

 

[Jlaw]

@AndrewJin where do you find the time to travel? How many vacation days does a Chinese worker have per year on average? In Canada, most companies are still offering two weeks. More are offering three weeks but most will not let you take three weeks in a row. That defeat the purpose.