Beautiful City of Hangzhou

My two-week study trip is officially over (a few days ago)! Due to limited Internet access, I wasn't able to update you all on my adventures after Shanghai. Not to worry, I will catch you all up.

City number two on the itinerary was Hangzhou. The city is known to be clean and pedestrian friendly. Yup, Hangzhou lived up to its name. After a short bus ride, we arrived to Hangzhou, dropped off our luggage, and hit up a food street right by the hotel. It was the perfect way to get a tiny taste of the city (no pun intended)!

Food streets are my favorite!

Day 2 kicked off with a little bit of site seeing. We spent the morning soaking up the sun at West Lake and visiting the different exhibits along the lake. It was absolutely gorgeous, clean, and relaxing. I could've spent the entire day there! After spending a couple of hours at West Lake, we hit up the National Silk Museum and learned a little about the history of silk. Favorite part of the museum? Seeing the live silkworms. Pretty cool!

Man and his raft on the West Lake



How beautiful is the view of West Lake??

My friend Madison (on the right) decided to join in and practice tai chi {while I tried my best to contain my laughter}

 

Mid-afternoon on day 2, we headed to the outskirts of Hangzhou and visited our second company: one of China's top real estate development companies. This was definitely one of my favorite sites. We got the VIP treatment and toured the development on a golfcart. The development was nothing like what I have seen in China before. It was very similar to a development in the United States. It was a tiny town built by this company that consisted of schools, retail stores, grocery stores, as well as condominums. The buildings are Western influenced and were BEAUTIFUL. I will admit, I would move to this development if I had a job opportunity in Hangzhou!

Aren't I right? Aren't these condos BEAUTIFUL!?

After an exhausting second day in Hangzhou we all decided to head back to West Lake and grab dinner. The view at dinner was beautiful! We couldn't get enough of West Lake so we went back to the hotel to clean up and a few of us got right back in a cab to spend the night out by the lake.

To me, Hangzhou is a REAL Chinese city. There aren't that many foreigners and the majority of the city's population consist of the elderly and the young children. It's definitely a problem that China is currently facing.

I had an amazing time in Hangzhou but what I remember the most about that city will be bonding with the other students on the line. It was definitely the turnaround point for the group!