My First Solo Trip – HangZhou

My First Solo Trip – HangZhou November 8, 2007

Filed under: adventure,travel — niki @ 9:19 pm

Hangzhou is awaiting...

Its been a while now since I thought about going on a solo trip somewhere. The scaredy cat in me finally decided that adventuring somewhere in China would be both doable and appealing for a first solo attempt. So there I was, taking an overnight train all by myself for the first time in my life from Beijing to Hangzhou.

The train station episode turned out to be quite an amusement all on its own. I had a huge suitcase, only because I had to carry half of my entire 5 weeks worth of luggage with me on this 2-day trip for logistical reasons, and had to log it across the crowded Beijing train station, up a set of escalators and down 3 sets of actual stairs before I even got to the train itself. The way I had to carry the suitcase in one hand and hold on to another bag in the other hand all while having my purse hanging from my back could have been a funny scene from a movie. I literally had to stop every couple of stairs to rest and re-energize myself. Since I had plenty of time before boarding the train, another rare occasion for me, and no one waiting impatiently, the whole experience was really more comical than anything else.

Then there was of course the challenge of getting my huge suitcase to fit in the actual train cabin where 4 people share a tiny little cabin with 4 bunk beds. Two of my fellow cabin mates, men, had to help me lift the suitcase way up in the barely fitting shelf right at the foot of my upper bunk. Once that was settled, the real excitement of this trip started to sync in.

After some casual conversation with the other upper bunk cabin mate, some peaceful reading, a few phone calls, and a night of so so sleep with my ear plugs, I was awaken by the friendly voice from the train speakers that announced our estimated arrival in one hour. It was almost 9am when I finally sat in a taxi, on my way to the hostel.

The next 2 days were filled with mixed emotions.

I ventured into a somewhat distant tea village, LongJing Village, on foot and bought some delicious green tea harvested from this past March, the best time to harvest LongJing according to the friendly tea farmer that I met and eventually bought from. Along the way, I visited a cave up in the mountain, hiked for hours in peaceful mountain roads, discovered multiple tea farms up in the middle of nowhere in high altitude, treaded through a thick and mysterious bamboo forest and got bitten by mosquito wildly, and searched for a chess pavilion up in the LongJing temple mountain, but never found it.

Since Hangzhou is famous for its XiHu (West Lake), I walked around it for hours. There’s something calming and possibly lonely about walking around a beautiful lake by oneself. For the most part, I loved it. Sweeping willows danced all along the still lake. Lotus leaves stood quietly in water. I sat in front of and as part of this surreal setting and read until I fell asleep…

The food experience in Hangzhou gave a whole new meaning to its long time acclaimed title for being the ‘heaven on earth’. If you ever go to Hangzhou, you must MUST try any of the bamboo dish. I had the best oil braised bamboo shoot EVER! It was so good, it brought me to heaven! Their locally made tofu was also another diamond in the rough. Simple but soooo satisfying!

The hostel I stayed at was JiangNanYi which was at the foot of the LongJing Tea mountain and 5 minutes walk from the beautiful West Lake. This hostel also happens to be a well-known local restaurant for delicious local food. The one that I keep drooling over, even today 😉

Over night train from Beijing to Hangzhou

My luxurious 4-soft-bed cabin on the train

Train entertainment...

LongJing tea farms on hill tops.

Walking through the mysterious bamboo forest, I was later told that I was lucky to not have ran into the wild boars that are known for attacking people.