JiangNan Trip! (Day 1+2)

Oh wells, I have finally uploaded the JiangNan trip photos into Facebook (Y) I always have the tendency to say ShangHai trip even though I've only been there for like 1++days? :X Yup, so it's JiangNan (HangZhou, WuXi， SuZhou, ShangHai) trip :DHehhe just want to share about this JIANGNAN trip in case I forget what I've learned and did there, even though there are pictures (but sometimes you will forget the stories behind the pictures).

Brief intro:We (my family and relatives) bought the coupon from groupon. Guess what? The coupon is only $40 for 5Days4Nights accommodation, meals and tour, but excluding the airplane luh. We bought our air ticket from jetstar to hangzhou(yep, cheaper :) ), it cost nearly $200 each. The travel agency actually wanted us to go to ShangHai directly, but we decided to take to hangzhou then take train to ShangHai, so we arrive 1 day in advance (so our trip is like 6D5N instead). Anyway, The insurance and the application of the visa cost $100 in total. $340 in total, but I spent more than that because there were optional tours that you can go, but you must pay for these extra tours. Shall tell you more along the way~

Day 1 (HangZhou):

Tada the jetstar air bus we took from SG to HangZhou... I ate the jap curry chicken rice in the plane for my dinner, it was quite okay for air plane's food, I guess, but the rice isn't the type of rice that I would like. XD ohya, by the way, I took the 6pm flight, and I reached hangzhou at around 11.30pm.

The temperature was around 15C when we reached there, quite cool, it reminds me of the weather in Genting highlands. Some drivers approached us to offer to drive us to our hotel (zhejiang railway station hotel) and they quote a price of RMB200 per car (I think it's per car, not quite sure). We rejected them and headed for the taxi stand instead. Woah their taxi is quite special, there's this plastic barrier surrounding the taxi driver's seat. I think they're trying to protect the drivers and probably the passengers too. He quoted a price of 100RMB and we agreed. It's actually cheaper because my cousin spent around 120+ RMB (using the meter).

We booked the 1st night of hotel ourselves through agoda ($60 per room per night).
There were still some stalls selling food outside the hotel at around 12+am (the railway station is nearby so I guess there are still potential customers). Not really sure if we will get use to the food they sell, and we just want to get to the hotel rooms to rest so we didn't try the food. (I shall skip rambling about the hotel and stuff but I suggest that they should have sofas or at least chairs for us to sit at the lobby) LOL.

 Day 2: Hang Zhou

Breakfast time! (It was still our Free and Easy time, so we walked on the streets to look for food near the hotel)

the streets of hangzhou

First meal in China: DaNiang Shui Jiao
It is a half fast food- half restaurant style (you order the food in the fast food way, but your food is served on your table).

Okay so after breakfast, we went back to the hotel and waited for our tour guide.
Then, we got on to this blue bus and the first site we visited was Xi Hu.

Pretty right?Breathe in the fresh air and let the cool wind blow on your face. Listen to the leaves rustle and look at the enery ahead. Haha omg, some narrative story huh? It's a great place for you to relax and calm your mind, and a good place for you to take pictures too :)There's a bridge there, known as long bridge (双投桥）. It's a little eerie but still a pretty site.

read the story of the long bridge (if you want)

 Next stop, WanSongShuYuan!
万松书院
What you see inside:  仰圣门、明道堂、大成殿
You will learn a little more about China's history, especially about the education system in the past.

Noon time! We will have our first lunch in china and the first meal we have with the tour agency. We went to a restaurant to eat(we went to rest for every meal except breakfast cos bf is in the hotel we stay in). Tried the dongpo rou, they serve the meat in a clay bowl. It's quite fattening, I think, because it's 70%30%fats and meat. Sorry no picture of sudongpo's rou(jk).After lunch, we went back to xihu again, but on the other side of the lake.

Ahahaha this time we took the boat to enjoy the scenery, the boat is battery powered.

the boat we were in

looking outside the boat

Enjoy the cool wind as the boat moves. Ohya, we are not required to wear any safety jacket, I think because the lake isn't that deep (average 2m deep). If you like to recite or make poems, this is a good place for you cos the environment and atmosphere there is really apt (there is this诗情画意feel).

After getting off the boat, we went to this garden, the flowers, the trees, the leaves and even the grass looks so pretty! It's really a wise choice to go China during spring, you will realise this fact when you see the colourful flowers, the green leaves :) If you love flowers, you will like the garden. Haha!

Walking further in, you will get to go to the peony garden, don't just stop there and take pictures with the big, brilliant red/pink/purple peony. Walk further in, there's more lovely peony waiting for you!

  

wThere's this  road leading to our bus, and from a place (they made this place for you to view the scenery (sorry i can't find a word for that place, it's just a ssmall stair case leading the road to the "depressed" area for you to take the pictures of the really nice scenery. End of the trip around Xi Hu, next up, we went to view the tea leaves plantation , the one we went is call "Mei Jia Chun", you cn really see some popo, elderly picking the tea leaves (they're carrying a wooden basket and wearing straw hats -- s) I heard that their work is part time, cos the tea leaves only can be plucked in around march-may period. It's a pity that we can't tour around the tea plantation :( , I was actually hoping for that more than their introduction of their products (Longjin tea leaves and chaduofen) When we reach this tea shop (ehh.. not really a tea hop, but i think it's another tourist spot)There's this uncle (his face is expressionless) and he is frying(??)/ cooking(?) the tea leaves with his bare hands and the wok is still hot (woah!).