In Hangzhou , beautiful early morning walk beside a very calm lake .
It was fascinating to see the hive of activity, every body busy doing exersize from Taichi to a brisk walk around the lake edge. The cleaners both on the water and around the park making everything pristine for the day!
While quietly seated at the lakeside taking it all in, one of the cleaners started wiping down the seat, and indicated that I needed to get up while he cleaned it with a wet cloth ,so much for quiet contemplation!
A boat going by with men and a large net scooping up floating rubbish on the lake and looking hard for anything to find! I am sure none of the cleaner people would get paid much, probably barely existance level. Someone threw a plastic bottle on the grass yesterday and he was seen by an old cleaner, she took him to task, and I had to agree it was blatant littering in a beautiful place, but the disdain that he treated her with was sad and I didn’t understand a word they said.I saw her later with a collection of plastic bottles which I assume she may get money for. There are a lot of smokers here and as yet it would appear there are few restrictions, I guess the chinese government would run into a problem if they tried banning as we have at home.
Huge numbers of people doing Taichi and exercising in general, some just stretching and standing with a leg on a metre wall. Passed an old man doing the same thing unfortunately he farted long and loud as I passed him.
They do not seem to allow bikes in the park, as there were some tourists doing just that and the poor little security guard complete with whistle took off at speed, how dare they! conversly they put up with the irrritating bus things that go around and around with scant regard for the pedestrians who are not allowed to wander on the grassy places. I can understand why ,after seeing the huge numbers of people takinig the air yesterday the grass would become bare in no time at all.
Had breakfast at the resturant next door with the excuse that I may need the energy later but at $5 it was a cheap meal. Food is very cheap here and keeping me well within budget on that score. Taxis are also reasonable as long as they use the meters in the cab.
Checkout was helpful in having someone bring my bags down, thankfully.Even had a man help me across a road, even on pedestrian crossings traffic doesn’t necessarily stop for people.
Filling in time at the train station before catching the train to Xian. Really looking forward to my stay there and seeing the terracotta warriors, the hostel will also pick me up from the station so that will be awesome. The noise and people at all the stations is amazing as the trains are so well used no matter what the time. There are the inevitable beggars trying to extract money , while you can only feel sorry for them they are extremely annoying.
