Weekend around Hangzhou (杭州)

Although not my typical Saturday of traveling around China, it was still a very enjoyable day. Let me tell you about it. 

In the morning I got up and went to the church to help us move buildings. Unfortunately I didn't get the e-mail about the date being changed, but I still had the opportunity to help out by cleaning the building.

After I was done, I figured I didn't bike all the way out there (okay it's only a 20-30 minute bike ride) to just bike home without exploring a little! 

One of my greatest finds here has been the universities on the other side of the train tracks. I had seen a tunnel going under the train tracks, gotten curious, and gone exploring once. After finding the universities (there are like 6 around there) my roommate Joerg and I found La Ji Jie (Trash street) where they have tons of cheap food and shops. The food is super good too. I lve it there.

So I decided to go to the other side of the tracks at another area closer to our house. 

Ahh, the sights and smells of China.

So I really wanted to climb a mountain (more like large hill) that I saw after riding for awhile. I'm the type of person who sees a mountain and wants to conquer it, so I went in search of a way up. 

A man gave me terrible directions, but somehow I managed to find stairs leading up. 

I left behind my trusty steed and began making my way up the mountain.

I really didn't make it far before I had to stop to look up a couple characters like I always do when I see a sign in Chinese. I was happy that I could understand the sign after looking up only two of the characters on my phone! : )

That's a lot of stairs!!

Eight hours a day of sitting in an office hasn't left me in the best shape, as my body quickly reminded me. 

I thought to myself, if Clark were here with me we would probably be running up this mountain. haha. 

It actually wasn't too long until I was enjoying the beautiful? vistas of Hangzhou. 

Actually, I'm not sure if you can make out Hangzhou at all through this smog..

Well anyway, I was happy to find a bench to stop and take a rest. 

Hangzhou is a fun place to explore. It's really huge and every interesting. Yeah, some of the things you see don't exactly make you think "First world," but I think that keeps it interesting. 

When I was on a street like the one in the first photo with the burning trash I saw a couple of brand new Audi's drive by me. Crazy. 

I can't wait until next weekend when I'll be in Shanghai (上海)! : )