The biggest city you've never heard of

Written 24th March 2011

I'm writing this as we approach Xi'an, after a fairly dodgy night overnighting from Hangzhou (via Shanghai). No plush private sleeper for us this time, but rather a six berth cabin, with no door, so not an ideal amount of sleep. But just about OK. The weather seems much improved from Monday and early Tuesday, where we arrived in the very pretty lake town of Hangzhou, only to find it deluged under a downpour. Our mood was not improved by the fact that I had managed to a) note down the address of our hotel in roman characters only, and b) note the wrong address down. Thank god for mobile Internet - we got there eventually, and given the downpour, holed up in our hostel and ate there, before going to bed very early.

Fortified with sleep, we tackled Hangzhou itself the next day and Wed am. , although we started off in a downpour, it steadily improved, was dry by lunch on Tuesday, and sunny on Wednesday. In some ways it was fortunate to see it in al weathers, as it is an extraordinarily pretty town. Now I say a pretty town, actually it's a massive city, with a population of over six million, though most of them live in horrible bits away from the lake and we didn't seem them. The lake itself is stunning:  a beautiful landscaped sequence of gardens, pools, pavilions and islands, which together are extraordinary to look at. Anna particularly enjoyed the endless numbers of little bridges, which pop up with understandable frequency given the causeways and pools the paths have to cover. We also discovered that Anna's greater tolerance for untidiness extends into nature  - I tended to prefer the ordered and symmetrical Bai causeway, to A's preference for the more uneven (though still entirely man-made) Su causeway. At one point I was accused of only liking nature when it had been tamed - an accusation without evil if you ask me.

Two other curious things about Hangzhou. Firstly, it was the most Chinese place we've been to. It's very touristy, but we saw only a handful of other westerners, and a lot of Chinese tourists (more in the sun obviously). Although we broke out of our hostel for dinner on the second night, it was noteworthy that it  hostel also had mostly Chinese guests. Secondly, the town itself, though old, is actually all of recent reconstruction, and this goes for the sights as well. It's prominence dates to the Southern Song (C12-C13), with successive reconstruction, especially in 1699 (we saw the same dates on a lot of monuments). However every monument seems to have been rebuilt or moved in the C20, including the most prominent of the main towers. I wasn't sure how I would feel about that - I am after all a hankerer after ancient authenticity - but having seen it, I'm a fan of modern restoration along classical lines; it works perfectly in Hangzhou. It's the best bit of China we have seen so far.