National Day was declared the morning of the beginning of October for seven days. Classes were cancelled and everyone travels all over the country to different locations. The occasion? The founding of People’s Republic of China. It’s like Chinese Independence Day, except it goes on for a week. We were granted permission to travel wherever we wanted (for 5 days), so we went to a place not too far from Shanghai. We took a bullet train to Hangzhuo: A city known for its internet based companies like Alibaba, and for better known for the West Lake. West Lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in China. It has inspired a lot of Chinese poetry and is part of one of the most well-known romantic stories in China: The Legend of Lady White Snake. The legend tells of a White snake spirit who transforms into a beautiful lady and meets a man on the bridge of West Lake who shares his umbrella with her and they both eventually fall in love. There is way more to that story, of course, but I’ll leave it out. Bullet trains are very nice and new. They have a place to buy food inside them and are very smooth. No turbulence. We rode the train for an hour. After we got off, we started by going to West Lake. West Lake has boats that take people to little islands inside the lake. We walked around for a few hours and only covered about a small portion of the perimeter of the Lake. At night, the bridge and the boats light up. It is absolutely beautiful. Good for dates.
Prior to making the trip to Hangzhuo, I had not sleep for two days, so I was exhausted by the end of the night. We searched for hotels while we were there, only to find a few that accepted foreigners. We stayed a hotel near the bullet train that would take us back to Shanghai. Our trip was scheduled for 3 days, but they cancelled the all the bullet train rides due to a typhoon. We cut the trip short by a day and spent the last day visiting the Leifeng Pagoda. They gave me a 50% student discount ticket. The sight was beautiful. A lot of trees and the air was fresh. The weather was just right and the sunset gave the Shadow of the Pagoda a coper outline upon the trees. We hiked up a trail that overlooked the West Lake, and ended the night trying to find a bus back. They were so packed that only about three people could get in it after it stopped. We waited for a less crowed bus and took it to the bullet train station where we returned to Shanghai that same night. 8/10 would go again.