Hangzhou in the Spring 四月杭州 (2012)

[chin]

We went to Hangzhou 10-14 Apr 2012.

Unfortunately for me I hurt my back a few days prior to the trip, thus I was not able to bring the better camera to Hangzhou, and once there I was not able to walk a lot. Thus I did not have many pictures besides a few taken in the hotel. I will post some pictures here, and I hope my friends will add to the photo journal.

[chin]

The hotel as stayed at was Four Seasons Hangzhou. It was a very nice hotel over looking the West Lake - the key attraction of Hangzhou.

The design of the hotel was like a Chinese garden and a Hangzhou home, with lots of 亭台樓閣. Some may say the corridors are too long.

[chin]

I have been to some very small hotel, like the ones we stayed in Peru & Tibet. We have been to some very large hotels also, like those with well over 1000 rooms.

The Four Seasons Hangzhou is easily the smallest grand hotel we have been to - it has only 78 rooms (and our group booked 15 of them.) Yet the amenity, staff level and service are very good. I guess I can also say it's the biggest small hotel I have been to so far.

The 1st picture below is the view from my bath tub. The 2nd picture is the outside view of a big suite.

[chin]

1st picture is the outdoor swimming pool as seen from the lobby. The hotel also has an indoor swimming pool.

The 2nd picture is where we had breakfast everyday. It's a nice outdoor area next to the pool.

The 3rd picture is overlooking the swimming pool. Beyond the pool is the quiet inner lake of the famous West Lake. The West Lake is very big. We once board a tour boat from the inner lake, and row out to the main lake. I hope some of my group members would post pictures of the main lake.

[chin]

More random pictures in the Four Seasons Hangzhou.

On the left of the first picture is their Chinese restaurant Jin Sha 金沙廳. During our first dinner in Jin Sha, oo8 recognized the tea pot they use in the restaurant is a limited edition Pewter ware from Royal Selangor. oo8 said that there is only 2000 pieces if that Pumpkin Pot produced, and Jin Sha as 50 of them!!! The waitresses in the restaurant probably found it very funny that we were all very interested in their tea pots!

The 2nd picture is again West Lake over swimming pool. The last picture is the West Lake as seen from the hotel.

One of my friend asked, why is all Chinese scenery all very hazy?! Like a water color painting.

[chin]

More random pictures from the hotel gardens.

[chin]

Hangzhou, one of the most storied Chinese cities, with history traced back almost 5000 years.

I have a book 吳越之間 by 余秋雨 in my office for more than 5 years. It's a book about Hangzhou (and the nearby Suzhou 蘇州), from the time of the Warring States (春秋戰國，吳越之爭) more than 2000 years ago, to... Well, I never finishing reading the book.

Many of the most famous buildings or locates in Hangzhou now date back to Song dynasty (about 1000 years ago!) Everywhere you go, there are buildings or courtyards or whatever that date back to Song, Ming, or the more recent Qing dynasty. We are talking about things that's 1000, 600, or at least 200 years old.

Yet, there I was. Spending most of my time in a bubble - inside the Four Seasons Hotel. My excuse was that many places are getting to tourisssyyy, too crowded, etc...

Am I getting too old or too energy-less? Why was I not even trying to get out and see something historic?!

[chanchiwai]

wonderful!!

have you guys to a place where our famous Red Hat Merchand lived (紅頂商人，胡雪巖), i went there about 11yrs ago right after our Marlon introduced me the book....紅頂商人.....i wish i can go there again for 2nd time...but no time...if you can could update would be perrfect...

 

[wongyan]

a video to show the forging process of LongQuan Sword!

[wongyan]

A map showing the highway systems around HangZhou.  We went to QianDaoHu and LongQuan.