Jiangnan Trip 2013

I was thinking of visiting China this autumn and I asked a friend along. We settled for a direct flight via Jetstar from Singapore to Hangzhou and paid just $247 for airfare after including taxes, admin fees and baggage fees. After our early dinner, we took off from Changi Airport in the evening and reached Hangzhou Xiaoshan airport at 11pm+. We were greeted by the cold winds on a Tuesday night. After about half an hour of taxi ride, we reached city centre and found our way to Ibis Hotel in Song Dynasty Street. We were pleasantly surprised that the twin room was pretty decent and costs only S$32 per night.

We started day 2 by searching for 咬不得高祖生煎 for our breakfast. Along the way, we noticed a long queue for freshly baked walnut cookies. We didn't want to spend too much time in the queue so we gave it a miss. Over in 咬不得高祖生煎, we ordered 2 kinds of 生煎 (meat buns with roasted base) and they tasted fantastic. The soup inside was really very tasty.

After breakfast, we spotted an interesting small food street and had a look along it. Next, we walked around the area and headed in the direction of West Lake, passing by 吴山, 鼓楼 and 步行街.

From West lake, we purchased a combo ticket for a boat ride to 三潭印月 and also for the Impression West Lake performance in the evening. Apparently, this combo ticket costs the same as just the performance alone at the ticketing office for the performance. We took the boat ride to 三潭印月and spent part of the early afternoon there.

Later in the afternoon, we took the boat ride over to the west coast of West Lake. We went to 白堤, 孤山Zhejiang Museum and 孤山. We also managed to catch the sunset before going for our dinner at the famous 楼外楼 restaurant. For dinner, we had "begger's chicken" (叫化鸡), 酱鸭 (tastes very salty), 东坡肉, fish soup and 龙井茶.

 After our sumptuous dinner, we went for the Impression West Lake performance venue which is just about 15 minutes walk away. The performance sure was very enjoyable and interesting, but the weather was a bit cold. After the show, we had to rush to a nearby restaurant and ordered bowls of hot beef noodle soup for supper to warm ourselves up. We took a bus back to the hotel shortly after our supper.


More photos here.