Hangzhou

Right, so, the second part of my travels took me to Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, along the east coast. Hangzhou and other cities, such as nearby Ningbo and Suzhou are all a stone's throw away from Shanghai, needless to say they're all busy, bustling, prosperous cities. Tuesday morning (after arriving back in Pingxiang on the Monday) I caught the train from Pingxiang to Hangzhou south station. Luckily, the Changsha to Shanghai train stops at both Pingxiang and Hangzhou en route so it's an easy journey to make, and fairly quick on a fast D; about 6 hours from Pingxiang to Hangzhou.

The reason for my visit to Hangzhou, I should say, was to visit Zhejiang University Press (ZJU) as a few months before, I had e-mailed various Publishing houses in China in order to find some work experience during the holidays, as Publishing is an industry I'm interested in finding a career in. I've decided. :P. So, the nice people at ZJU were kind enough to reply to me (& they were the only ones!) and agreed to let me have a look around the offices of the Press for a few days. Due to the timing of my visit, I could only spend 3 days there (wednesday to friday) as the staff were leaving for their spring holiday on the 20th.

Once I arrived in Hangzhou, I tried to buy a return train ticket to Pingxiang to no avail but, my contact from the Press, Lingling, had provided me with instructions on how to get to my hotel, which involved taking a bus and then a taxi. I was a little nervous, as Hangzhou is a big city and spans two sides of a river, so I did get a bit worried when it looked as if we were leaving the city completely as we drove over a very long bridge, and I thought I was going to end up in some suburb/ghetto of Hangzhou! This wasn't helped as my stop was the second to last one, so I thought I was never going to get there. However, the driver & a nice man, who translated on his phone for me that the driver said he would tell me when it was my stop, saw that I got off at the right place ! I arrived at my hotel after what seemed a very long evening, and prepared to find the Press the next morning.

Turns out, I didn't have to go far, as the campus the Press is on was just down the road from my hotel (Lingling, once again, had helped me to find some accommodation for my visit!) I met Lingling, and we then went to the Press building. It was big, as I had expected it to be, but not as lively; ie nobody was rushing around, no phones were constantly ringing, no photocopiers and fax machines constantly whirring, it was a very quiet environment which I hadn't expected for a busy publishing house. During my time there I had a little office, which I shared with 2 other editors, and on my first day I was given some proofreading to do as well as meeting some of the heads of department, e.g HR and the Director of the editorial department for foreign language publications - all the head honcho's !

My first evening, Lingling took me for dinner at a nearby restaurant which was very nice. The food in Hangzhou (& Zhejiang) is not as spicy as it is in Jiangxi, so it was nice to experience some different tastes; mainly sweet instead of spicy. On friday, my last day in Hangzhou, Lingling took me to the West lake, which is the main sight to see in Hangzhou. The West lake is a massive, natural lake in the city, quite close to the university campus and a favourite for the urbanites of Shanghai to visit at the weekend, hence the reason Hangzhou is called 'the Garden of Shanghai'

We took the bus, which is also where we met the German guy, who when asked whereabouts he lived in China, took a packet of nuts out of his bag & told us that the area he lives in is famous for them. So that's what I meant when I said he got his nuts out, he didn't actually expose himself to Lingling & myself...although that would've been another tale to tell ! The weather whilst I was in Hangzhou was very grey and autumnal so the lake did look a bit murky, I can imagine its far more beautiful in the summer on a sunny day but, even though it was grey it gave the lake a very mysterious, mystical quality to it: it made me think of the lake in the King Arthur legends, where he gets given Excalibur! So, I was really glad I got to visit the lake, as it is a must-see if you're ever in Hangzhou and it was a really nice, memorable way to end my visit.

On Satuday, I left for Pingxiang. Lingling had managed to get me a bus ticket from Hangzhou to Changsha bus station, and book a hotel room for me once I got to Changsha as I would have to wait to get a bus to Pingxiang the next day. Lingling was, quite simply, amazing in helping me sort out my travel and accommodation needs for this trip - I don't know what I would've done without her ! So, I got the coach to Changsha, which took a rather hellish 15 hours, as we stopped twice and got stuck on the motorway for an hour but I made it to Changsha, and thankfully my hotel was next door to the bus station so I didn't have to go far for my bus ticket in the morning.

I got back to Pingxiang on Sunday afternoon, caught my breath, and then started making enquiries into going to Hainan island for Chinese New Year at the weekend!