2nd Day in Hangzhou

Day 2 Itinerary: ZhiWeiGuang Restaurant 知味观 –> Temple of Soul’s Retreat LingYin Temple 灵隐寺 –> The Grandma’s Restaurant 外婆家 –> West Lake西湖 –> ZhangGongGuan Restaurant 张公馆 –> HeFangJie Pedestrian Street 河坊街 –> Tea Buffet 茶楼

That’s the most contented day throughout the trip! My HangZhou friends are all very lovely, caring and passionate. They made my trip a colourful one.

ZhiWeiGuan Restaurant

Early in the morning, HuiJia and her husband came to picked us up for breakfast @ ZhiWeiGuan Restaurant. Her husband was so considerate, he had breakfast at home, so he could wait for us in car, and we could had ours in ZhiWeiGuan with his wife, because that place has no parking space… HuiJia knew I was coughing badly and she made me a liquorice water in thermo flask, knowing my sport shoes were wet by the rain and she brought me a pair of hello kitty crocs… I can’t be thankful enough for them…

The restaurant is something like our Chinese DimSum restaurant, HuiJia bought a book of coupon and started introducing the food at the food counter.

These were the dishes that we chose:

                      酱油鸭 (soy sauce duck)                                      蜜藕 (Honey lotus root with glutinous rice) *

            猫耳朵 (Cat Ear, made of dough)                                 馄饨 (Wantan, small dumpling)

               Salted Vege + Toufu*                                                炸酱面 (mee with thick gravy)

* are my favourite!!

After meal, HuiJia returned the remaining coupon and get back the cash. Interesting system.

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Temple of Soul’s Retreat – LingYin Temple 灵隐寺

Right after breakfast, 1st thing 1st, we went to LingYin Temple to pay a respect…

Nothing is free in China, no exception for this temple too. We need to pay to get in. When we were waiting at the ticket counter, we saw there’s a equipment which can help you to understand the temple more. It’s a device which it can detect your location and tell you the stories behind the statues/ places/ things that you are looking at.

                Uncountable Buddha statues…                                     root forming a Chinese word “heart”

                            The lovely couple HuiJia (most left hand side) & her husband (most right hand side)

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Lunch @ The Grandma’s

This Grandma’s that we visited is the flagship, it’s located at a same building as 2 of my HangZhou friends’ office, it’s very convenient for them to come meet us for lunch as both of them has no car.

All the dishes that they ordered are all very yummy… I love the chicken and the cauliflower.

                                                                                              茶香鸡 (Smoked chicken with tea leaf)

       毛菜汤 (hairy leaves soup, lol direct translation)                                     salty fried prawn

                            Fried cauliflower (very very nice)                    豆腐鱼 (fish cooked in spicy soup with Toufu) 

麻婆豆腐

Photo after lunch!!!

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West Lake

To describe the beauty of West Lake is beyond any word can do. I can’t even believe West Lake is a man-made one.

Initially, HuiJia’s husband suggesting us to see the lake by rowing a boat on the lake, but due to bad weather, we can only ride on the ferry boat, took us to a small island in the middle of the lake and walked around. I really like this place, very peaceful, harmony and romantic…

HuiJia & her husband started seeing each other in this place too!

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Dinner @ ZhangGungGuan

We have missed the dinner the day before, so, all of them decided to give us another treat! Because they need to OT in office to meet the deadline, they asked us to go to this restaurant near their office.

This restaurant served very authentic HangZhou dishes too, all of them were very tasty, especially the chicken feet and frog and fish from Thousand Lake.

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HeFangJie Pedestrian Street (like our night market)

We couldn’t walk a lot because it was raining that night, we just went in to one of the very famous traditional herb store and a bronze museum which shows collection of bronze art from the 5 generation of the family.

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Supper - Tea Buffet

This is one of the must-do in HangZhou, visiting to a tea buffet restaurant, tasting the premium tea and observing the beauty of West Lake.

The buffet charges is based on the tea that you ordered, for example, the tea that I ordered is RMB90, I’m paying RMB90 for the buffet. Unlimited refill of hot water and got a chance to change for another tea which is same value or lower.

To be continue… my last day in HangZhou…