Last day of our class trip was spent on West Lake, the crown jewel of Hangzhou. The rain from the previous night became mist in the morning, so our lake tour became a haze tour...
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| happy tourists |
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| about the most we can see once we took off from the shore |
We should have known though, when the tour guide said a lake tour, he
really meant a boat ride on the lake, and since it was all cold and
hazy, the crown jewel of Hangzhou became the final torture of the trip with bone chilling wind and nothing to see.
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| The haze/fog/smog did drive out a lot of other tourists and it wasn't all that bad all of a sudden |
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| "The boats aren't so bad though" I thought... of course, that wasn't the boat we got |
Once we got back on shore we visited some of what's suppose to be the origin of all Chinese garden . That made up the disappointment from the lake tour...
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| nice and peaceful |
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| very zen |
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| on the other side of the camera |
Next, we were going to head to yet another temple, but thanks to the terrible traffic in Hangzhou, we could not make it there in time, but I am not sure if the alternative was any better: we were headed to another pagoda! This one though, The Six Harmony Pagoda allows us to climb up to the top. The view was spectacular; it overlooks the river that runs pass Hangzhou. We also got to see a nice pipeline that runs across the river.
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| "i think ive seen this view before" |
Last stop, before we go home, we were scheduled to visit a green tea field since the Longjing green tea out of Hangzhou is world famous. A nice lady, who's suppose to be the fastest "tea packer" in the store showed up and did a quick demonstration before kindly asking us to buy the tea. Bad move...
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| the mist did make the field look much more mysterious |
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| seems like legit green tea |
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| No one's impressed after they asked us to buy the tea... |
So that concludes the 3 days, 2 night class trip. We all learned a lot more about Chinese group tours, and I am pretty sure it has scarred most of us for life. "Dirty Dave" told us he would be retiring before dropping us off back to the hotel, however, I would not be surprised next time if I see him around, pulling the same stunt to another group of suffering people...
Anyways, we shall see what's next!
