Thoroughly Modern Journey to Ancient Chinese Capital of Hangzhou

Day 64, 2024 Grand World Voyage

Thursday, March 7, 2024; Shanghai, China

As a native-born Texan, I’ve always heard that “everything’s bigger in Texas.” Of course, it’s not true, except perhaps some Texas egos. But traveling the world sure puts any Texan bragging rights to shame.

Today I traveled faster over land than I’ve ever traveled before (and this from someone who has driven a car more than 130 mph). I took a Chinese high-speed train from Shanghai to Hangzhou, a distance of 126 miles on a train designed to travel at 250 mph. I have no idea of how fast we actually went, as my smartphone’s GPS service mysteriously quit working while we were on the train. I had no sense of extreme speed, as everything we passed was in the distance, with the exception of passing trains that flashed by in a couple of seconds.

What I found most amazing was the smoothness of the ride. I could have sketched as we traveled along. Most of my train experience has been on Amtrak, which usually uses freight rails. As I wrote in my blog series on a three-week Amtrak journey around the American West, I couldn’t even write while we jerked along. The worst was a train from Moscow to Chișinău, Moldova, about 15 years ago. I couldn’t even read on that 40-hour journey.

Our guide in Hangzhou said the city is considered a medium-sized city in China, with its population of 13 million. That’s compares with “just” 8 million in New York City. Despite having traveled in China twice before, I still am struck by the sheer number of people here. Clusters of high-rise apartment buildings are everywhere.

In a country where the rivers flow from west to east, historically there wasn’t an easy way for leaders to travel from the north to important southern cities. The solution was China’s Grand Canal, more than 1,000 miles long connecting Beijing to Hangzhou and completed in 609 AD.

Today the city is an important hub of Chinese commerce, serving as the headquarters for large companies like the Alibaba Group, cofounded by Hangzhou native Jack Ma. The city also has the distinction of being one of the seven ancient capitals of China.

The highlight of our tour was a boat ride on West Lake, a fresh-water lake surrounded by parkland near the center of Hangzhou. Paintings and photographs typically feature the beautiful water and surrounding mountains with blue skies and clear air. Today a light haze left the sky gray, but nonetheless, locals considered it a great day. Thousands strolled the many paths on West Lake’s shores and the three causeways crisscrossing its surface.

Our tour group filled the wooden boat, and I was fortunate to get a seat on the open aft deck. Many smaller and a few larger boats cruised slowly around the lake, which is surrounded by pagodas, temples and gardens.

Cormorants perched on still-bare trees. I imagine that a little later in the spring blooming plum and peach trees will make a stunning scene on a clear day, although I surmise that like in other large Chinese cities, the haze is actually smog and may seldom disappear.

We had a bit of bad news as we headed for our other destination, Lingyin Temple, or Temple of the Soul’s Retreat. Despite previous approval, the local police wouldn’t let our buses drive to the parking lot. So those of us up for the trek took off at a fast pace walking more than a mile – mostly uphill – to reach what is one of the largest and most visited Buddhist temples in China.

Once there, we only had 15 minutes to explore. I decided to do a quick ink sketch from outside, and thus never saw the 80-foot Buddha in the principal hall, the largest wooden Buddha in China.

The entire complex was crowded with visitors, many of whom lit incense, bowed and prayed in front of the temple.

Hundreds of carvings and rock reliefs are cut into the rock above the pathway leading to the temple.

Our day started shortly after 8 a.m. with face-to-face inspections in the cruise terminal with Chinese immigration officials. After our hour-long bus ride to the Shanghai train station and hour-long train ride to Hangzhou, we went straight to a Chinese lunch. Dish after dish of vegetables, pork, chicken and fish arrived, washed down of course with a good beer.

After our afternoon of touring, we repeated the train and bus rides, not arriving to the ship until after 9 p.m. I was too tired to attend the second show featuring local dancers and musicians.