杭州与绍兴／Hangzhou and Shaoxing

一直都听说，“上有天堂，下有苏杭”，于是在游西藏的计划被破坏，被迫改换路线时，决定到江南走一走，看看它是不是真的能够媲美天堂。
There is this Chinese saying that, “Above us, there is paradise. On Earth, we have Hangzhou and Suzhou”. Thus, after the plans of touring Tibet and West China was scuppered, I decided to tour Jiangnan instead and check out for myself if Hangzhou and Suzhou was indeed the paradise like Chinese have described.

可是人还没有到杭州，所有的兴致就已经被磨光了，这还不都要怪那长达20个小时的火车路程。原本想暑假要买火车票不容易，于是提早了四天去买票，结果还是买不到卧铺的票，只有硬座的票。当时心想，我挺会忍耐的，坐20个小时的硬座应该难不倒我。可是一看到那座位，我就巴不得火车能马上到站。火车一边的座位是三个一起，另一边是两个一起，而且座位是面对面的。我坐的是三人一座，前方是两个小孩和负责将他们带到上海的表姐。旁边则是一个抱着5岁小孩到杭州找老公的女子，再来就是一个独自上路的男子，七个人就得挤在小小的空间20个小时。刚开始还可以，可是火车驶得越久，上车的人就越多，结果就一堆的人将小小的走道挤得水泄不通，然后站累了就靠在我们这些坐在走道边的人的身上。慢慢长夜，不是被人推挤，就是被他人大声说话给揪醒，再不然就是被四周的香烟味给呛着，根本无法入眠。后来有一群人就干脆就地“开摊”，玩起牌来了。好不容易挨到火车到站，我发誓，这是我第一次，也是最后一次坐硬座了。
Headed for Hangzhou with an eager heart. But all the enthusiasm for a new city was fully doused way before I reached. Blame in on the 20 hour train ride that I had to take from Guilin to Hangzhou. This being summer holidays, the peak of tourist season, I thought I’d better get my train ticket early or face being stranded with no ticket. But even though I went to the ticket booth four days in advance, I was told that all sleeper tickets had been sold out, and I could only get a hard seat (3rd Class). Since I was a seasoned traveller, I naively thought that I would be able to survive 20 hours on a hard seat easily. Only to realise how wrong I was upon getting onto the train. Seats are on both sides of the train for the hard seat carriage, with those on one side big enough for 3 and those on the other side meant for 2, and every other seat facing each other. I got a place on the 3-man seat. In front of me was a lady tasked with bringing her two young cousins to Shanghai to meet their parents, and a lady with a 5 year old kid heading to Hangzhou to meet up with her husband, plus a lone guy, “hiding” right in the corner. With 7 people squeezed into that tiny space, you can imagine how “comfy” the ride for 20 hours was. As time passes, things became more and more unbearable, with lots of people getting on and seemingly, nobody getting off. The tiny aisle was full of people, eating, spitting, talking loudly and smoking. Of course, I wasn’t able to get to sleep at all. In the end, one group of guys was so tired out with standing; they simply squatted down and started gambling. It seemed ages before the train finally rolled into Hangzhou train station. I swear, this is the first time, and definitely the last time I will get on a hard seat carriage.
杭州不像丽江或是大理那样有古城，但却有老街。说是老街，其实一点也不“老”，其实是被翻新过的，显然是吸引游客去的地方，不过还是有它有趣之处。像是这个有百年历史的老字号药铺，不只售药和为人把脉，还免费提供凉茶。
Hangzhou doesn’t have an old city centre like that of Lijiang or Dali, but it does have an old street. But this old street is really not that old. It was more of a new street designed to look like an old one, obviously with the sole aim of attracting tourists. It is nonetheless an interesting street though, with shops like this one, a Chinese medicinal hall with a hundred years of history, offering not only treatment and medicine for illness, but also free herbal tea to cool one down in the hot summer. 街上摆着贩卖各种物品的小摊子，像是衣服、鞋子、纪念品、有趣的玩具、手制的玻璃摆设品和几十年前流行的“拉大片”，就连麦当劳在这儿也显得额外“精彩”。
There are stalls on the streets selling all kinds of wares, like clothes, shoes, interesting toys, handmade glass ornaments and also watching of old films the old way. Even MacDonald’s looks interesting, housed in an old building. 杭州基本上是个漂亮的城市，没有太多能够吸引我的地方。不过，到杭州就一定少不了游西湖，就是那个《白蛇传》里面的西湖。原本打算租辆脚踏车来个“西湖游一圈”，不知怎么搞的，最后变成了“西湖走一圈”。这可不是开玩笑的事，西湖一圈可是有7.5公里，花了我四个小时才走完。虽然走来走去都是在看西湖，可是西湖大得不管你从哪个角落去看，都会看到不同的景色。
Hangzhou basically is a nice and clean city, but there is nothing much that captures my eye. But one place I did go to is the famous West Lake. There are dozens of West Lake in China, but this is by far the most famous. This was the one that was mentioned in the Chinese legend, “Lady White Snake”. I was planning on renting a bike for a tour of West Lake. Somehow or rather, it became a “walking tour of West Lake”. This is no joking matter because West Lake is 7.5km all round. It took me 4 hours to complete the whole route. Although it was always the same lake that you’d see, the scenery always looked different. 游完西湖，对我来说就大致上已经游完杭州。原本想到杭州周边的小镇，如乌镇去走一走，却因为坐公车花太多的时间，等到了长途汽车站已经是接近中午，要到较远的地方去已经不太可能了。最后就坐上了开往绍兴的车子，一个小时就到达目的地了。
Having done West Lake, I more or less seen what there is to be seen of Hangzhou. Made plans to take a tour of one of the towns near to Hangzhou, but a spending too much time getting to the long distance bus station meant that I could only choose a place that will take only one hour to get to for visiting. So in the end, I had to take a bus to Shaoxing, instead of more interesting old towns like Wuzhen.

对绍兴的唯一认识就只有绍兴酒，其他就什么也不懂，根本不知道这是一个怎样的城市。一下车就只有一个感觉，好热啊！后来才知道，那里气温居然高达40度，怪不得太阳打在手上感觉是痛的。绍兴不是什么乡下地方，只能算是小城市。没有太多雄伟的建筑，也没有特别漂亮的景致，较令人感兴趣的就是它的老街。最后在老街转了一圈，再到主要街道上晃一晃，就打道回府了。　　～伟
Prior to this, the only knowledge I have of Shaoxing is that it produces the Shaoxing wine. I don’t even know if it is a big town or big city. Turned out this was a small city, with the typical modern shops, but no massive buildings. The first feeling I have when I got off the bus? It was hot, hot, and HOT! The thermometer in the bus indicates that the temperature was at least 40 degree Celsius. No wonder the sun felt painful. Since it was just another city, there was nothing of great interests. The only place where I got out my camera was the old street. After a short walk around town, it was back to Hangzhou, and on to the next destination. 　　～wei