West Lake

I first visited West Lake in Hangzhou in 2011.

It was in October, I think. I had come to spend time in China with my older brother, who’d settled in Shanghai the year or so before. He recommended we do an overnight at the nearby West Lake. I did a quick google search and discovered stunning photos of a vast lake lined with wooden walkways and pagodas. Hey, that looks good!

So we boarded the train to Hangzhou. It took maybe 45 minutes. I suppose I expected we’d exit the train into some bucolic rural expanse. Ha, no. Hangzhou’s a city of over 10 million people. This is China.

In any event, I decided to take a weekend here on the West Lake again. It is quite a peaceful place once you navigate the city to get to it. A kind of Central Park, but with no evidence there’s a massive metropolis surrounding it.