July 9
With no work on Friday and having a train ticket at 9PM (bought when I expected to go to work on Friday) I was lost for things to do, so I decided to sleep in (which was a great decision as I appear to be battling sleep debt). After a late wake up I watched some TV and went for a run. I'm really, really glad I decided to bring my running stuff because it has been a wonderful way for me to get away from my apartment complex/office and I'm glad that I have a way to expend excess energy that would otherwise drive me stir crazy.
After my run and a little bit (okay, a lot) more TV I started to make my way to Hangzhou city from Xiasha. I waited for the K865 bus outside my apartment for about 15 minutes before one of the guys I work with, Hart, came by and we started chatting. He told me that the bus only comes by about once an hour and that I was better off taking a taxi, which I ended up doing. I got off at No. 3 Road and No. 6 Road, where I expected to catch the K525 bus straight to the Hangzhou Railway Station, but the bus stop was nowhere to be seen. I walked a block in every direction, but kept striking out. After about 45 minutes of fruitless searching I gave up and walked about a mile to the B1 stop (B1 seems to be the only bus I can consistently take in Xiasha), where I boarded the next bus and made my way to downtown Hangzhou.
When I got off the B1 at Wulin Square I did the same thing I've done every time I've been to Hangzhou city, walked down Yan'an Road for awhile and then cut over to the West Lake. I decided to have a late lunch at the French bakery Phil and I stopped at last weekend and then get a coffee to kill time until the train (I still had about 4 hours to kill). After only being able to muster an hour and half from a single cup of coffee I opted to leave and take another look around the West Lake. Today it was absolutely gorgeous, unlike the other times I'd visited. There was almost no haze in the sky and the clouds were uncharacteristically cooperative. I could see all the way across the lake for the first time, where I saw some beautiful mountains I didn't know existed. When night fell (after I stopped at a second coffee shop to slowly sip a coffee and enjoy their comfortable chairs and air conditioning while I read), I walked over to the West Lake again and it was even more gorgeous than it was in the afternoon (albeit, more difficult to photograph. Starting to appreciate the beauty of Hangzhou, I made my way over to the railway station to meet my friends and ride the well maintained, if slightly boring, train to Shanghai.
 |  |
| The West Lake during the day on Friday. It was gorgeous, I could see across the lake and I saw those mountains for the first time. | The West Lake at night on Friday. It was beautiful, but the pictures did not turn out as well, unfortunately. |
When we got to Shanghai I was utterly amazed at the sheer scale to the main railway station. It is a sleek, modern building, but above all it is huge and the crowds are some how even bigger. After passing by what seemed like 100,000 people, we got to the metro station to ride to our friend Susan's apartment. In addition to being fantastically crowded, the Shanghai metro is incredibly clean and well planned and technologically advanced (although transferring between two lines takes at least 15 minutes due lines being at least 1km apart). The Shanghai Metro is making a very strong case for my favorite metro.
 |  |
| Almost every station I saw on the Shanghai metro (and I saw a lot of them for just one weekend) was designed like this and they were all this clean. The door style reminded me of the Jubilee line in the London Metro | One of the many, many underpasses I walked through to transfer between lines in the Shanghai Metro. I think there might be more mileage covered in these tunnels than inthe system itself. This reminded me of the underpasses connecting terminals at O'Hare |
Once we met at Susan's apartment, we decided to go clubbing (I had mentioned that I'd like to see some nightlife, which is sorely lacking in Xiasha). We ended up at a club called Ricky's (or possibly Richy's, that is still being debated) that was utterly packed (elbow to elbow for the entire floor space of the club). Ordering drinks at a club is not easy, regardless of whether you speak the language. Not only do you have to fight the crowds to get to the bar and get the bartender's attention, you have to fight the internal contradiction about paying for one drink the amount that would buy you an entire bottle somewhere else. Perhaps you are paying for the lifestyle, but it just reminded me why that is not my scene. With some liquid courage, we hit the dance floor to clear out some space for ourselves and show how Americans party (side note: the entire club seemed to be smoking. The stench hung thick in the air and, later, I could smell it on all my clothes. It's a miracle that I made it out of there without any singed clothing or flesh). I don't know how it happened, but we ended up staying until 4am, when we finally realized the absurd hour it was and that we had to be up at 7:30 the next day.
