Hangzhou is relatively close to Shanghai and is a very beautiful green city with a big lake and many forests. I took a fast train to Hangzhou, wich took about two hours to get there. However what I didn’t know was that the south train station was very far away. I asked some of the people outside the station but they only tried to offer me an expensive taxi ride. After some time someone told me to get on bus 300 and then change to another. I changed to bus 7 at the main train station. The correct number but wrong direction. So I got a cheap sightseeing tour the other way around the lake. Anyway, after some more interchanges and a good bit of walking I arrived at the Tour’an Backpackers Hostel. The hostel is close to the Zoo and in the middle of a forest. Nice location but a bit far from the town. I booked it to meet up again with the group I have been travelling in Shanghai.
People I have met on the way were very friendly, one girl even paid for my bus trip as I haven’t had the correct amount. Also no scams as in the big cities.
On the first day I was walking to the lake and along small paths over bridges to the West Lake. This was a nice change as there weren’t too many people.
In the evening I bumped into the group from Shanghai and we teamed up to go for some food. Getting a cab wasn’t easy as no one would stop or understand where we wanted to go. A taxi ride to town costs about 20RMB. We walked along the food market. Ate some skewers and had a beer.
Later in the evening we went to a bar, but as it was Monday night there wasn’t a lot going on. We had a nice chat and played the typicall Chinese dice game in a bar. Everyone geta five dice. All people throw at the same time but don’t reveal the numbers to the others. Then a player starts by guessing the number of two’s, three’s’,… in total. The next player makes a guess, which has to be higher than the last guess. So for example the first player says there are 5 dice of number 2, the second player could guess there are 6 dice of number 2 (or any other number). At some poont it doesn’t seem likely and a player can call “bullshit” and everyone has to count the dice. Whereas one is like a joker and counts as any number.If the total count is x or higher the person stating this amount wins.
The next day I walked along the lake and also into town to book my train ticket to Xi’an. Again the people were very helpfull. I asked for directions and this guy that was handing out fliers on the street walked with me to show me the ticket office. I booked a night train from Hangzhou to Xi’an.
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