My longtime friend Dan (Pittsburgh) came for a two week stint in the ol' red country.
We had a great time traveling, eating, and attempting to deal with language/culture barriers. During his first week we hung low in Beijing because I still had to work for half of the week. The following week we headed out to Shanghai for four nights, then Hangzhou for two nights.
In Beijing, Dan and I (Luhan was working)hit up a few touristy things such as Tienanmen Square, Forbidden City, and the Houhai shopping area. We managed to do a short trip out to the Great wall and it was amazingly quiet, probably because it was freezing. Interestingly enough, when you're on the top, there's no wind which makes it not nearly as cold as below. The following day we checked out Mao Zedong's pickled corpse and both had doubts about its legitimacy. This is all I can say about that.
I realize now how different it is traveling with another foreigner rather than Luhan. It creates a whole new set of circumstances or rather opportunities for people to try and sell us things we don't want and swindle us.
On Saturday we headed out to Shanghai via airplane. Dan and I were on our own for the first two days and I think we did fairly well. Shanghai is a lot different than Beijing. Traveling around the city is a bit easier as the city seems to be more of a tight knit. It also presents a whole new architectural style. I'm mainly referring to the old structures that can be compared to the downtown part of NYC and the old buildings in the French concession area with their European vibe. But, the modern buildings, I think far surpass the style of anything new being built in Beijing. To me, parts of Shanghai reminded me of an unkempt Tokyo with a layer of dust.
Finally, we took the fast train to Hangzhou which was about an hour and a half south. I heard so many good things about this city, so I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately it didn't live up to its reputation of being a quiet small little place. First off, the traffic was worse than Beijing. We sat in traffic for more than an hour on one occasion. Secondly, the area around the lake turned out to be a tourist trap with overpriced restaurants. The lake itself was really nice and we took a boat tour. On the last day we were there we decided to go out to this temple at the top of a mountain. It's called Ling Yin. This is easily the best temple I've been to in China, so far. It's spacious and not overflowing with tourists. There's a section of trails on the side of the mountain with Buddhas carved into the stone. And the temples themselves had a really different feel than any of the ones I've been to in Beijing. I highly recommend this place and it's reason enough to visit Hangzhou.
