breakfast of red bean paste buns (3 rmb) and freshly brewed coffee (15 rmb). and spectacle of a bratty girl who deserved a kick in the pants for mouthing off to her parents. but her rudest remark earned not the slightest rebuke. if you let your kids ride roughshod over you, maybe you deserve what you get.
decided to go to wuzhen, a water town with ming-qing era buildings extant. missed the tour bus at 8 am (65 rmb roundtrip) so had to make my way to hangzhou east bus station instead. next bus to wuzhen was full, advised to make my way to tongxiang (20 rmb) instead. was quite impressed with the hangzhou bus station. there was actually a system, and one that was actually stuck to. tickets are scanned before one boards the bus and, as learnt from a harried ticket scanner, the bus couldn’t leave till all tickets sold had been scanned and all the seats accounted for. bus was new, clean and comfy; they even provided bottles of mineral water. easy listening French pop came on, though that ended and was replaced by a chatty radio broadcast. journey took an hour and then caught a shuttle bus (4.30 rmb), which took another 20 minutes. once we reached wuzhen, bought the return ticket to hangzhou first, 22 rmb, 4.20 pm bus. continued to shadow this group who had also come to wuzhen via tongxiang and bought the same return ticket to hangzhou. the group was headed by this somewhat obnoxious guy, who did however, seem to know what he was doing. so ended up at cuixianguan for lunch. came to 44 rmb, which was not cheap considering the state of the restaurant. but the food was surprisingly good, tau pok stuffed with vegetables, hongshao chicken pieces which were tender and pleasantly chewy.
60 rmb to get into wuzhen (http://www.wuzhen.com.cn/) and hello tourist hordes!
reminiscent of lijiang old town, but decidedly less blatantly commercial. effort to preserve traditional crafts by hawking them as souvenirs – blue-dyed cloth, alcohol, snacks and candies. tried wumeigao which was a muffin-like confection but with a red bean paste filling. maybe should have eaten lunch within wuzhen. the ticket also gave one access to specific parts of the old town that had been preserved, including pawn shop, distillery, cloth-dyer, shadow-puppet show, dioramas of social customs.
the overcast sky eventually spewed a very fine drizzle.
went to yan’an road for dinner. wanted to check out zhiweiguan, or the magnificently-named 'flavour savouring tower.' had the oddly-named but appetizing cat’s ears, yummy dumplings in soup and the xiaolongbao, which were dried out and disappointing. polished off with red bean soup. grand total of 19.5 rmb. this was all on the first floor of the tower, which was a food court for the masses. perfect for single travelers since one could try various foods in one place. tough finding a seat though. one could enjoy sit down service on the higher levels, presumably at a premium.
hangzhou strikes one as a place where one could eat and shop well. some familiar Beijing establishments such as tiandiyijia (high-end classy restaurant) and babyface (club) were here as well. there was even a high-end shopping enclave (guess it’s not a mall) where giorgio armani, hermes et al rubbed shoulders. certainly important elements in the bid to receive the sobriquet of china’s most liveable city. (hangzhou was ranked sixth.)
though as a cabbie complained, the cost of living was even higher than beijing’s. damned tourists.