Tour of China: Hangzhou and Huangshan

Top 10 in Hangzhou and Huangshan

#1 Here we leave the factory towns and enter a more scenic China.  I loved Hangzhou.  It's a beautiful and sophisticated city.  

#2  West Lake was the highlight of this city.  We enjoyed our run on this lovely path next to the lake.  Once again I was so impressed by the hundreds of people out in the morning doing various activities.  

#3  Hangzhou also gave us some great food.  This meal included fish, frog, crawdads, tofu, and at my insistence,  some fried rice.  Except for the frog it was all great.

#4 After Hangzhou we visited the mountains of Huangshan, which were unbelievable.  They are so fantastic you don't believe your eyes, but seeing with your eyes you have to believe how fantastic they are.  

 #5 There was a lot of hiking stairs involved in getting to the tops of these peaks.  I got a little tired.  There are advantages to traveling with two men.

 #6  Posted all around Huangshan there were signs full of wisdom and good advice.  They made me laugh.  After a while I got giddy with anticipation to see what the next sign had in store for us.

 #7  We stayed in the cute little village of Tangkou.  This was the smallest town in China we visited.  There were plenty of other Chinese tourist passing though but once again any Westerners were a rare sight.    

#8  I loved that people were so fascinated that a white guy could speak Chinese.  This guy made friends everywhere we went.  I also love the height difference.  For once I didn't feel like a runt.

#9  A short trip from Tangkou we found the Unesco world heritage sight of Hongcun.  Hongcun is known as "a village in a Chinese painting."  That explains why there were dozens of painters everywhere here painting different scenes of the village.  This village gave us a taste of Chinese past, dating from 1131.  The architecture and woodwork details found in the homes here was incredible.  

 #10  It was really hard for me to pick my top 10 from this area.  It was so beautiful and peaceful, and felt good to get out of the cities.  I really enjoyed seeing a different side of China.