Made it to Hangzhou

After 24 hours of traveling- 2 planes, one high speed train, and a taxi- we traveled almost 8 thousand miles and forward 13 time zones....whew! Our hotel is awesome (western beds- Chinese beds are notoriously hard) and our guide Sarah very nice. The first 2 things she told us were 1. Do not cross the street in China like you cross at home. Chinese drivers are very crazy 2) it's ok for Chinese people to drink tap water. But you do not drink tap water...only bottled.

They already had a pack and play set up when we arrived. We ate dinner and breakfast at the hotel- the breakfast buffet was ridiculously huge and great- a mixture of western and Chinese food. We slept decently last night with the help of some ambien and were ready to go this morning bright and early.

We walked to the biggest tourist destination in Hangzhou- West Lake. Most surprised by all the greenery here - for a city of about 6 million there are lots of tree lined streets, parks with grass and flowers too. The area around the lake is particularly lush. We took a boat to an island in the middle of the lake and explored- had my first squat potty experience(will try to get a photo of the "potty" or lack thereof next time. And we saw the world famous squirrel. See photos below.

We just awoke from a dangerous nap and are about to watch a movie instead of sleeping the rest of the day like our bodies want to. In the morning we go get Annie at 9am! Will post more tomorrow night!



Allaboard High speed train from Shanghai to Hangzhou







I think we found something to export to china- squirrels!















Our guide Sarah



West Lake