Tag: Hangzhou

My Hangzhou Travel Guide

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I lived in Hangzhou for ten months. While many people have lived here much longer than I have, I’d like to think I got to know the city quite well. So much so that I’ve put together this Hangzhou travel guide. I hope you enjoy visiting as much as I enjoyed living there. While I can’t offer lots of history about places, nor suggest places to stay, I can recommend places to see, where to eat/drink, and how to get around the city. Hopefully, all these things will help if you’re planning on travelling to Hangzhou. Why should I travel …

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6 Things I Will Miss in China

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Our flight to leave China is getting closer and closer. It’s been a whirlwind experience with some great memories. What will I miss about this fascinating country? 1. The Hospitality of Locals Before coming here, I heard some hearsay about how rude Chinese people can be. Firstly, China has 1.3 billion inhabitants so you really can’t generalise. Secondly, I have received some wonderful hospitality from people here. From being invited to people’s homes for meals, being shown around hometowns, and even just somebody on the street offering me some soothing cream for my mosquito bites. Even with my limited Mandarin speaking skills, …

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How to survive a cold spell in Hangzhou

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This weekend Hangzhou reached some of the coldest temperatures the city has seen in many years. My school got closed due to the weather, and Mitch had buggered off to Cambodia as he’s already broken up, which meant I was left alone in our very cold flat (no central heating or double glazing) . However, despite sub zero temperatures and water cut outs – I’m still here, alive and well. Here’s how I survived. If you find yourself in a cold city, these tips may work for you too.  Buy yourself some proper pyjamas. If you’ve ever been to some non …

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Our Chinese Christmas

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My previous post was a universal Christmas Card to you all. Now I shall tell you how we spent our Chinese Christmas. On Christmas Eve the Chinese English teachers at my school invited me out for coffee and cake in the afternoon which was really kind. Talking to them all outside of school was really relaxing and I felt like I got to know them a bit more. They treated me to a smoothie and very nice Belgium waffle. The head of English even bought me a Christmas present: reindeer gloves!

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Shanghai Shenanigans

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Hangzhou is ideally located an hour away by train from Shanghai. We left from the snazzy East Hangzhou train station. It felt more like an airport as it was very modern, full of restaurants, and even had proper boarding gates with ticket checks and security. For a mere £7 we left Hangzhou in our comfortable economy seats and arrived an hour later in Shanghai. I still can’t quite comprehend the size of the city: 23 million. That’s nearly 4 times the amount of people in Hangzhou and London. Needless to say, only being there 2 days meant we saw a …

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Celebrating Thanksgiving in China

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Being British, I have never ever celebrated Thanksgiving. So when I got a message from a fellow British expat here in China, asking a group of us if we’d like to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday I wasn’t too bothered. I told Mitch but he thought we should go, sure, we’re in China, but why not celebrate other cultures and festivals.

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