From Shanghai on Monday August 1 we took a day trip to a city called Hangzhou. Hangzhou is about two hours from Shanghai by train. After arriving we joined a tour group to see the sights. The main attraction is a large lake which is called West Lake. At one time, a long time ago, Hangzhou was the capital of the what eventually turned into China. The lake is man made and must have take a tonne of work at the time it was built. Today it is mainly used by tourists. We took a boat to the main island in the middle of the lake where the main temple was and is. Certainly a beautiful place to take a walk. Too bad the temperature was a stuffy 37 degrees Celsius. It sure was nice to arrive back at that air-conditioned tour bus.

After visiting the lake in the morning we visited some temples in the afternoon. One Buddhist, and one Dao. It was interesting to see all the good luck charms that the Daoists had lined up that could take care of any worry from poor health to finding a spouse.

We returned the same day and spent two more days in Shanghai. We spent some time shopping and went karaoke with some of Ting's friends. On the 3rd we headed of to Beijing for our last adventure with all of us together.

On to the Beijing page