China First Impressions: Part I

Hangzhou: The City Itself

West Lake

I meant to write this post over a month ago, but I've had a hard time figuring out what to write because I don't feel a true connection to the city of Hangzhou. Hangzhou to me is a combination of picturesque tranquility with nondescript sprawling big city. It lacks a distinct flare and personality that I try to find within a city. After one month I thought I just needed more time to really find it, but now that I have been here for over two months I am fearing the city may really lack that indescribable 'vibe and feeling' that makes a city truly wonderful and unique. 

The downtown area of Hangzhou is quite clean, filled with medium sized business buildings and lots of shops. What makes the downtown area unique though is that it abuts the UNESCO protected West Lake which is admired by many domestic tourists every year. West Lake is beautiful, and the rolling hills behind it that take on a silhouette effect due to both the humidity and polluted air, add to the visual splendor. But this is just one small sliver of the city.

In general I find that cities tend to feel smaller than their actual population size, but I do not feel that way about Hangzhou. It may be due to the fact that I do not live in a district that is in the downtown area and therefore to go anywhere of note it takes forever and allows me to see how far this city really stretches. The area I live in is mostly full of fairly fancy high rises and to be honest is quite boring. There are some pretty good places to get food though, and the cost is almost nothing. The most vibrant area of our district in my opinion is called 'trash alley' which is about a 15 minute bike ride from where we live. Here you won't find any cars, but it is packed with people, food, more food, and you guessed it, trash. This is one of the few places where there is some energy and it can be a lot of fun to come here to eat, people watch and really feel like you're in China. The swarms of people can get to you after a while, so after about one to two hours I am ready to retreat. 

High-Rise Apartments in the Binjiang District of Hangzhou

Trash Alley

If you didn't already know this, I am a sucker for public transportation. I LOVE public transportation. A little weird, I know, but after growing up in California where I was devoid of public transport, I fell in love with the Chicago El (even with all its faults), the Hungarian BKV (metro, trams and buses), and had love affairs with public transportation all across Europe. Hangzhou has let me down in the public transportation category. They have a developing metro system, but the closest metro station to where I live is about a 20 minute cab ride. The buses here are slow and take round-about routes making it shorter to bike most places. It's been an adjustment getting on without good public transportation, but I've been trying to make due with my new bike and our e-bike (electric scooter - will post about this later). Without good public transportation it does make it more difficult to really discover what's here in this enormous city, but hopefully in time I will find out.