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This arrived today, more fodder for my growing obsession with GoT!

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Today I walked 1/2 way around West Lake in the last free day I have here. A common sight on the city side is to see and hear groups of people singing operatically, doing Tai Chi and then there are people doing calligraphy on the pavement with large brushes and just water.

It's obviously autumn, the leaves have turned, everyone's rugged up (except me, quite comfortable in just a tshirt). The lake has several man-made causeways and islands (from dredged silt) created in some places during the first millennium. The lake's famous (in China) for ten poetic scenic places such as one island called 3 ponds that mirror the moon, two others are Two Peaks Piercing the Clouds, and Orioles Singing in the Willows.

After walking to the far northern shore, I took a ferry boat (45RMB, ~$10) to the 3 ponds mirroring the moon island. This basically is an island in the lake which has lakes (ponds) inside it. After that, back to start. Ok, here's the food bit: on the island I bought some meat-on-a-stick ($1) from a vendor on the side of the path. It was ok, but I don't know what the meat was (maybe pork). It reminded me of "cut-me-own-throat Dibbler" from Terry Pratchett's discworld novels. :-P

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One of several student dining halls from the outside and then inside at the University I am teaching at. This is one floor (of 3) in one building (of many). I tend to eat here at night during teaching, simple, tasty meals (usually including some form of wok-fried spiced vegetables) with a very generous helping of rice costs about 5 yuan, about $1.

Snacks I have bought: I was hoping for mint Oreos, but realistically settled for green tea flavour (yep!). Corn chips (think unflavoured Cheetos) covered with a chocolate shell, surprisingly tasty. Kumquat and lime drink with a touch of honey, and a very cute looking mini cheesecake.

Finally, a sheep with lamb statue. Sadly, no squirrels.

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Today I decided to walk an entirely different way, so I headed away from west lake toward the (massive) Qiantang river (see map). This is a good 5k away from my hotel. Along the way there are several public spaces, rivers and viaducts, along with the remnants of an old wall. There's a huge amount of development, ginormous skyscrapers going up everywhere you look. There also seems to be a great multitude of apartment blocks. "Angry birds" has obviously made a mark here, apart from every second market item being devoted to them, I noticed quite a few junction boxes had angry bird murals on them.

Before the river I found a relatively large modern shopping mall ("MIXC"). It only had upmarket designer fashion shops eg Versace, and top end consumer electronics eg Bose. I thought things were reasonably cheap in China but not here - I could probably only afford some socks. Hmm.. better make that one sock.  Actually, maybe one dirty sock... with holes... that's already been used as a rag on the Tag Heur shopfront window.  I doubt most locals could shop here either but there must be enough rich locals (and I mean rich) to sustain the place. With > 4 million (?) people in the city there's probably enough of the rich to keep the place in business.

The saving grace of the mall (it even has an ice skating rink - see pic!), was that it contained a IMAX theatre and I was just in time for a showing of Tintin in 3D IMAX.
I loved every second of it. I loved reading the Tintin books from my local library as a child and .. ahem.. I collected them as an adult. The film won't disappoint. Without over hyping it too much.. it was brilliant. Look out for the hawk chase scene...

Continuing along the road I was following to get to the river.. it just ended. This also happened following another road on the way back. This one turned into a tunnel with no pedestrian access, so the only way forward was suddenly a muddy track leading into what seemed like a war zone. Think 6 lane highway disappearing. I was now in a major, major development area, row after row of new, and 1/2 complete empty apartment block buildings. Finally after much uncertainty, I reached a normal road again and finally got to the "civic" area. Think municipal offices on an extremely grand scale. One building looks like something out of the film Contact - (the accelerator machine), or a spaceship out of Stargate. The big gold ball building in the pictures is the Intercontinental hotel and convention centre. Another building is Hangzhou Grand Theatre.

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Had buffet dinner at the Hyatt on the one weekday night I have free. It cost 384RMB, which is about $75 - that's VERY, VERY expensive for here. One of the best meals (and filling) I've had. The quality of the food was very, very good. The only odd component was one dish I tried was cow's stomach. Tasted like beef. In contrast, lunch today was beef with rice (~$3), a hot chocolate with oatmeal (! - $1.50) and a cute puppy vanilla and raspberry cake ($2) from a franchise called "Free Mori".

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Towering above Wusheng square, the city god temple is an inspiring site. On the way I saw an interesting window... To nowhere. I can see why they put a window to complete symmetry, but why then let you see the brick wall behind?

Inside the temple is an incredible model which uses faux 3D, carvings, models etc to show a town scape from the golden era, the southern song era. The antiquity of the (recently rebuilt) temple is marred a bit by the expo mascots out the front, a leftover from the world expo in Shanghai.

Finally, delicious "beef salad" and Miso soup at a "Japanese Cuisine" cafe.

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I had to do some prep work this morning, but after that I went for a walk to an Indian restaurant ("Omar's Cafe") for lunch, after which I perambulated around part of West Lake. The tandoori chicken was very hot, more than I am used to. The restaurant has some very roman-esque columns next door.

Around a large portion of the lake are exquisite parklands, leafy nooks and water features. I can see why the entire district is famous and popular with tourists.

The golden buffalo was rumored to live at the bottom of the lake. When the lake ran dry, the buffalo would appear and spew out water to refill the lake.

Lastly, a squirrel. All holidays need a squirrel. (I wish I was on holiday!)

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Every student has a bike to get about campus, they're ubiquitous and colorful. Finally the toilet in the international college - takes a bit of getting used to, and you have to bring your own toilet paper. The men's toilet floor on level 4 of my building needs a clean (it *is* the end of the day 💩)

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Anyone who has been to Hangzhou, or indeed elsewhere in China, would be familiar with the CRAZY death-defying merchants of translocation terror, the green taxi.  The taxi drivers drive like madmen, and every time I get in one the first thing I do is desperatley hunt for the seat belt, the buckle for which, unfortunately, is buried most of the time under the seat, which is now the pit of despair. Clinging to the loosly flapping belt, wrapping it around your arm like a hard tourniquet gives some semblence of security, but I do actually have the utmost respect for their amazing driving skills, the way they're able to navigate with millimeters of precision around other vehicles coming from the other direction at 100km/h (and I suspect, laughing maniacally on the inside at the sheer look of terror on their victim, sorry, passenger). It's mandatory to use the horn, in fact, I think it's an insult to the other vehicles if you don't. [this last said only slightly tongue in cheek].  The last driver, knowing my Mandarin is limited to hello, thank you and receipt, insisted on asking me highly complex questions just to invoke my look of stupidity and pantomining I don't understand (which caused him no end of laughter).  Still, I'm alive and relishing the 18 or so more taxi rides I have to take whilst here...

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I had a slightly bizzarre episode with the hotel reception.  I wanted to get some milk to have with instant coffee when in my room (there's a kettle, instant coffee, spoons etc, but no milk).  Most other hotels I've ever stayed in usually either have a small carton of fresh milk or something like long-life (eg UHT) milk in one-serve-portions.  The reception clerk looked at me strangly and then conferred with her colleague.  "Have you had breakfast?"  err..  yes, I just came from breakfast from across the lobby. "ah, so you have had breakfast?" ...  yes, I had breakfast. I just want some milk to have in my room with coffee.  Quizzical looks. Gestures that there's milk in the restaurant to have with cereal. A 5 minute phone call to someone and they tell me it costs 35 RMB for milk (~$7) and they'll bring it up.  Feeling stupid and not wanting to refuse it now for the fuss I caused, I go back to my room.  20 minutes later, a porter knocks on the door and hands over a shopping bag with a litre of milk (UHT!) in it.  They sent someone out to a nearby supermarket to buy the stupid crazy westerner some milk.  oh dear.

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