We rolled into Hangzhou early, which was kind of a surprise. My recent experience on T-class trains, shunted aside as the ugly older sister to the vivacious newness of China’s burgeoning high speed network, is that they are forced to wait, silently fuming, as the gleaming bullets of Freudian modernity zip hither and yon, a situation which always causes me to tack on 45 extra minutes to the arrival time when traveling by budget rail. Not this time. We were into Hangzhou on the overnight from Beijing a full 30 minutes ahead of schedule which begs the question…just what does one do in Hangzhou at 6:30 in the morning? Checking into the hotel is of course out of the question, so we hunkered down to a decent breakfast buffet at the modestly famous Zhiweiguan and plotted sites to see. And see them we have.
A quick visit to the Geely automotive factory headquarters was a refreshing exercise in forced optimism (Volvo deal is coming! Car sales in the Ukraine are up!) and evasiveness (the US market still has “regulatory issues” to be overcome). I suggested the strategy of a good car at a fair price to be politely quaint, couldn’t they just buy a few senators and take over the market Akio Toyoda-style?
“Hangzhou is a paradise on Earth,” “Hangzhou is the most livable city in China,” “Hangzhou is the cultural capital of the south.” I’ve been bombarded with the message ever since the train PA came on at 6:00 this morning. It’s the kind of drivel one usually takes as background noise in the Middle Kingdom…
Here’s my take…for once, the megaphones might be right. Sitting on the shores of West Lake this evening, taking in the sunset after an early spring rain, there was a quiet magnificence that you just don’t get anymore in the PRC. Part of it is that the shore is under some pretty heavy controls…actual bike paths even…but the scenery across the lake, the dots of pagoda peaks and temple patches rising above thin willows of fog was worth the long train ride and then some.
The hotel we are staying in, part of the quirkily unreliable Hanting chain, is actually the site of an older historic hotel where many luminaries, including Sun Yat-sen and Lu Xun, reportedly bedded down for the night. (Not, unfortunately, with each other, though wouldn’t THAT make for a fascinating dissertation…) In fact, the room I’m staying may well have once sheltered the writer and CCP official Sha Qianli. I have no idea if this is true or not, but if it is, Comrade Qianli was not a very large man. The room is 85% double bed and no windows. That said, it’s only a five minute walk to the lake and, if it wasn’t plain from my uncharacteristic gushing above, this more than makes up for the fact that the act of putting my suitcase on the floor makes it impossible to open the door to my room.
More later.
Recent Comments