Hangzhou: Revisited

After arriving in Hangzhou, we promptly left the bus station (the bus ride was long and filled with traffic, as we passed by a huge thunderstorm-saw so much lightning. We met my cousin and aunt for dinner (they came to Hangzhou to visit us and take some of our luggage since we had sooo much). We ended up walking to the city's "restaurant" street that was filled with flashing lights/ signs that advertised the hundreds of shops on the street. Ordered about eight different dishes and ate quite well for the first time in a couple of days (mountain food = inferior). Afterwards, I took a taxi with my cousin to go to an internet cafe. Unfortunately, you need a Chinese student ID to access the computers (talk about epic fail). Ended up walking around the city and finally returned to our hotel. Hotel internet is pretty horrendous (not only do they block sites, but they also have a ridiculously slow speed).

The next morning, my aunt and cousin left for Shanghai, while we explored the city some more. We ended up visiting the Lingyin (a Zen Buddhist) Temple. The place was huge and housed numerous sacred relics. In addition, there were lots of historical artifacts (some over 2000 years old!). It was really interesting seeing the various Buddhist monuments and monks. We were really lucky as we saw monks administering a prayer service (it was really musical and majestic). *See the pictures :)* Ate out on "restaurant" street again. The restaurant we ate at had a special on this special kind of chicken, which we ended up getting ($29 for a whole chicken) Went back to the hotel, packed and slept pretty early since we were leaving for SuZhou early the next morning.

PS: Beware of Chinese taxi drivers, they drive in circles and waste your time sometimes

Major Blogfest soon