We made (another) day trip to Hangzhou on Saturday for a bit of cultural and consumer relaxation. Although smaller and less popular than Shanghai, Hangzhou is actually much easier to navigate thanks to the large number of tourist buses that patrol the roads day and night. Although slightly pricey when compared to the standard buses, they stop at any significant tourist spot and consequently make getting around a simple and trouble free experience… well, nearly. You see, the designers of these buses did a good job up until it came to installing the seats. At this point I can only assume they ran out of money or China temporarily relaxed drug laws because, rather than installing standard seats, they decided to kit the buses out with horribly uncomfortable and slippery wooden benches. Every time the bus takes a corner you have to grab hold of something or you will simply side across to the other side of the bus or, as a small child found out, fall onto the floor.

Anyway, our first stop was Linying temple, one of the most famous ancient Buddhist temples in China. For those of you that are interested, the temple was apparently built by an Indian monk in 326AD and subsequently restored (many times) during the Qing Dynasty. As with most places in China, the atmosphere was blend of rampant commercialism and genuine spiritual belief. My biggest gripe however, was the extortionate entry cost. Before you can get anywhere near the temple itself, you must first pay for admission into the surrounding gardens (30RMB per person). After this you are then required to pay another admission fee (35RMB each) before you can enter the actual temple. Outrageous!

The rest of the day was pretty much just a combination of shopping and eating. We didn”t really get to try any interesting dishes as the Sushi bar we had been told about was no where to be found. Hopefully next time we”ll be more adventurous than Pizza Hut.

Categories: China
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