This past weekend was a holiday for China (their Labor Day on Monday) so we decided to make use of the day off and make a weekend trip out of it to a nearby city called Hangzhou! We had heard from pretty much everyone that it is a beautiful place to go! Supposedly it had one of the largest lakes in China there which was called West Lake. So I literally booked our hotel the night before we left and Eric went and got train tickets so we could get there! Sometimes spontaneous trips can be good right? Usually Hangzhou is about 2-2 1/2 hours away by car and the bullet train is about 40-50 minutes depending on stops!
This is the sleek new bullet train that they now have running between some major cities! Had to get a shot of this cool looking train! Grant, you would LOVE this train! Super cool and soooooo fast!
Needless to say, the train station was CRAZY busy! In fact, I'm not sure I've been to an airport that was this big and this busy! I guess that's what you get on a Chinese holiday, EVERYONE TRAVELS!!! I'm serious, EVERYONE!
After looking around for awhile, and asking a few Information counters, we found out how to read our tickets and what line we had to stand in! We had bought Subway sandwiches, for lunch, before coming to the train station so we quick ate that and were ready to travel! Mom, you would be proud, we packed everything for all four of us in two carry-on bags! So we had a stroller, backpack carrier (that I bought off a friend the night before) and two carry-on bags! I know, I know, IMPRESSIVE! I remind you that Cambry is still on bottles, and also baby food, and she is not potty trained yet! So...we did pretty well! Thank goodness we did because we couldn't have carried it and with everyone so close (they do not have a personal space issue like we do) we would have been struggling!
The fastest speed I recall going was 351km per hour! So fast! If you didn't want to get sick while looking out you had to look out in the distance, not at anything close! We were surprised by how clean the train was, how very, very quiet and smooth the ride was. Honestly, it made you want to fall asleep but we tried to stay awake to see some of the scenery outside of the city!
Nothing too spectacular because it was very flat! We were shocked by how many greenhouses there were! Tons, and tons, and tons of them! We assumed they were for raising all of the fruit that we always see and eat, as well as flowers and plants!
BEAUTIFUL West Lake in Hangzhou! We walked around the lake and just took in the sites! It was quite windy, so the lake was very choppy! You could rent bikes to ride around the lake, take different boats across the lake or just walk around!
Notice Reese's face in this one, we stood here and were soon getting our picture taken by probably at least 20 others! This was the frustration of the entire weekend! We really had a tough time enjoying our visit due to being a walking "freak show" literally because of how different we looked! It was also on one of their holiday breaks but we could hardly walk without someone asking to take pictures of the girls or with the girls! Reese was extremely sick of it! She hid most of the time or would run to a spot for me to take a picture and then quick run back to me so no one else could! Funny, but not after the 100th or 1000th person asks you!
A sweet dragon boat that you could take!
Cambry was EXTREMELY tired and fell asleep in the backpack carrier!
They had a really cool water show!
Tons of little cafes along the lake! I so wish that Lake Macatawa had this!
Some statues, not sure what of!
Broken Bridge, it leads out to a long causeway in the middle of the lake!
Do you see all of the people! Nothing, nothing like it was the day after this! CRAZY!!! You literally could not push a stroller! NOT FUN!
A temple, one of many in the area! Something about a famous snake women! I'll have to have Eric share the story of it sometime! One of his co-workers told him the entire story, but they built a temple about it!
Reese had been wanting one of these Chinese umbrellas for awhile, this is the one she finally picked out!
Ava, this is a kite that they were flying in the air of an octopus! Reese wanted to show you because she thought it reminded her of Ursula from Little Mermaid and thought that you would want to see it!
A great night market, super busy!
Chinese house boats!
See the look on her face and where her eyes are looking?
They light up the trees everywhere around here! It always looks so beautiful in China at night!
Super heroes Reese and Cambry!
The morning before we left we ate at the restaurant at the top of our hotel that was revolving! Reese thought it was pretty neat and the view wasn't too bad either! It was a little foggy out, but we could still see quite a bit!
We had a great time but learned our lesson not to go here on a holiday weekend! Next time we'll have to visit the many other touristy spots around the lake, when we can actually walk!
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