In Hangzhou cycling seems to be one of the best ways to get around. Since I’ve been here I’ve seen so many people on bikes and scooters, many of them using their bells excessively and shooting down the street. There seems to be more lanes for bikes and scooters than in the UK, but I wouldn’t say this makes it any safer. No one wears a helmet and traffic lights appear to be optional, add to this the fact that there are lots more people and it probably isn’t hard to see why I’m quite pleased not to have been injured. Despite the possible safety risk, cycling in Hangzhou was so much fun and a great way to see the city – plus I now feel a bit more like a Hangzhouvian (I think that’s a word).
The beautiful West Lake
I was pretty tired when I set off in the morning (not too early) for the cycle as the night before I went out to KTV (karaoke) with some friends. It was quite a surreal experience as you are given a private room (ours was fairground themed), and microphones. You get the room for three hours and can sing badly to your heart’s content. Sadly I didn’t do too much singing as I had a very sore throat but it was still fun to go anyway and to embrace the Asian phenomenon of KTV!
We rented some pretty snazzy bikes for our cycle (mine was green but one of them was pink and had flower pedals) and it cost just 30 yuan to rent them for the day, which is about £3. Bargain! It was a lovely day and once I had got used to cycling in China it was beautiful to see the lake from different angles as we went round it. We stopped at a lovely bakery for lunch before heading further round the lake to one of the big pagodas.
On my bike
The pagoda was magnificent and had incredible views at the top of the landscape all across Hangzhou. It was so beautiful!
View from the pagoda
View from the pagoda
After the pagoda we carried on cycling round the lake which was such a great way to see it and on our way back round we also went through a tunnel and passed a bamboo forest and some of the longjing tea fields.
Cycling is definitely the best way to see Hangzhou.
Pagoda
Charis in China 