Sometimes it's good to just escape everything. We often feel we are obligated to be aware of the world's situation, and those Instagram influencer lifestyle 'world travelers' are selfish morons. This is correct.

However, we don't need to become a mindless influencer, influencing the next generation by dancing on TikTok whilst throwing in the occasional 10-second clip talking about 'living your life to the fullest, anything is possible'. We can, however, do something we often call 'vacation'.

It's generally quite hard to travel in China because it's simply so far to go to any notable place. Want to see Pandas? Go to Chengdu. For me, that's 1,700km away, to a place where 1.4 billion people are also traveling because everyone goes on vacation at the same time.

However, for me in Shanghai, there are actually some fairly local spots which are quite nice. One of those places, Hangzhou.

Hangzhou has a LOT of beauty within, and only 47 minutes bullet train away!

By the end of this trip, I realised I could have had so much more peace of mind simply by taking several weekend trips to this city. Which is what I will be doing starting from now.

Day 1

I'd never actually taken the train in China by myself. It was a bit of a pain to start up the booking process, but once I got my account sorted, it turns out that booking trains is insanely easy and efficient. Most routes in the Eastern half of China is now ruled by low-price bullet trains, so I booked one a few hours before departure in the early afternoon, first-class seating, for a little under $17.

Entering the station and train requires no tickets, just your ID or Passport.

Trains arrive and depart on the second according to the schedule, and reach speeds over 300km/h. As you can see, social distancing isn't really a thing anymore here, though a good 75% of people still wear masks (it's mandatory in some places).

Since I left in the afternoon, I arrived around 2pm and decided to make the most of it by going straight to the first thing I could find. I didn't really google things to do or plan a route in advance; in fact, I didn't even have a hotel room until just before the end of the train journey. Sometimes it's good to just wing it.

The first thing I spotted was Leifeng Pagoda by the famous West Lake. I took my backpack with all my stuff and got myself a ticket and headed in.

Quick History Lesson

Leifeng Pagoda was originally built over 1,000 years ago, in 975AD. It was Japanese pirates that ended up burning the wooden elements down somewhere around the 1500's. The brick elements stood tall, however, until superstitious local started picking bricks out, grinding them up and putting them into medicine under the belief that the bricks could repel illness and miscarriage. Ultimately, the whole structure collpsed in 1924, and was rebuilt to its current unrecognisable form only 18 years ago

So you can see the structure is somewhat modern. Hell, when you have an escalator to reach it and - no joke - an elevator inside to take you to the top floor, you tend to lose that historical feel from 1,000 years ago.

The lake, which you can view perfectly from the top floor, is quite beautiful. It's about 3km across and along with everything around it, is well conserved. Despite the tendency for billions of tourists, it seems a lot of the ecology has managed to thrive, so kudos there to city management and evolution.

The weather was ridiculous. China had just gone through record-breaking floods and monsoons with up to 100 million people nationwide being evacuated, the worlds largest dam threatening to burst and destroy the country as a whole, and more. This was coming to an end and we were back to 37C roasting summer. By the time these photos were taken, I was feeling sticky, stinky and all-round gross. Time to check out the hotel and start again in the evening.

When I booked one hotel on the train, I noticed I got a $45 discount for two nights for seemingly no logical reason (quote: long-stay discount... two nights??) and so I decided to upgrade and see if I got the same discount. I did, and it was a great choice. The views from my room were fantastic, I felt like I was in the deep forest, with gorgeous mountin views, dragonflies swooping around, a balcony, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a beautiful garden outside. Normally I'm quite content to go 1-star and focus on being OUT of the hotel, but this trip was more of a chill vibe, so I wanted to enjoy my room.

Nobody spoke English but I knew enough to get through the complicated rigmaroll of submitting my health code and other bureaucracy you wouldn't normally need, as well as be given a map tour of things to do I didn't ask for.

Best of all was the location. Atop a steady hill, I could find a shared bike, do a single pedal motion, then cruise at increasing speeds down the road until I'm rocketing at car speeds. Towards the bottom things level out and I slow down to a halt right at the first traffic lights, where, to my left, lies the West Lake destination 3 minutes later without a single pedal in between. Glorious.

Evening came, and I had my rest. My clothes were unwearable with the stench of sweat. It has never come on as bad smell so quickly in my life so I dunno what was going on there, but I had to dump them in the bathroom to wash later.

I headed to a pedestrian street night market recommended by my friend and, like you can see; bustling as hell. I wasn't interested in almost anything for purchase; mostly trinkets, tea and... certain delicacies. If you ever want to try scorpion and centepede on a stick, here's the place to be.

I enjoyed a few snacks and the general carefree buzz, took home some pretty awesome Hangzhou beef jerky and took pretty incredible shot of the moon which I'm pretty sure was a fluke but is pretty damn amazing for phones. Ever tried to take a photo of the moon on your phone?? It's a vague white blur of light. Not tonight!

Day 2

In no rush, I headed out around 11:30am. Another recommendation took me to a gorgeous scenic spot with temples and mountains. The starting point was pretty gross with hoardes of tourists and kids with annoying-ass whistles and such. Here were some pretty cool caves and structures, where ancient carvings in the walls, again a little over 1,000 years old represented Buddha's in several ways.

t didn't take long to find places that required steps and hills which is typically the death knell for families with kids.

Only the calm, cool folk were found up here, highly trimmed crowd. It was around this point that the sweat battle began, with a steady flow of drips coming into my eyes and down my face. But, as if my wishes were granted by God, a typhoon was on the way and the rain started pouring down like a... typhoon. It was so wonderful and refreshing, I didn't even both putting on my waterproof thingy until I was already pretty drenched.

The temples, as a result, were extra peaceful. The smell of incense, fresh rain and that distinct cut-grass smell all blended into my nose and I felt extremely content and at peace, the way a Buddhist probably should be up in this mountain.

I found my own routes where nobody else was going, enjoyed the kind of privacy you simply can't enjoy in Shanghai due to CCTV being literally everywhere. If there were mountains in Shanghai, you could bet you couldn't find a single angle on that mountain in which you are not onscreen. Here, it seemed comparatively safe in that regard (though I did notice quite a few cameras in other places in the mountain).

The water in the rivers and streams were as crystal clear as you could imagine, defying half the stereotypes of the Chinese environment. Surprisingly large Coy Carp were found in numerous spots all over the city including here and just brought everyone that much closer to nature.

After another breat in the hotel enjoying the rain battering down on the gardens below my balcony, as if wished by God, it came to a stop right as I set out to leave for an evening stroll with no specific goal other than to be around the lake. This is where I learnt the road going through the lake wasn't a road at all, but some kind of pedestrian-only land bridge!

The bridge is about 2.8km and plenty of people were making the walk through, but it was still very peaceful either way, with some gorgeous views of the steady ripples of the lake which you can see immediately to your left and right. The land itself is barely 10 metres wide (originlly dredged up sediment from the lake). With willow trees flowing in the breeze and nature all around, the walk is worth doing over and over.

On the other side, you'll find yourself at the location where some famous night show happens on the lake, but I decided against that - maybe next time.

Day 3

I had to leve today but again, I hadn't planned exactly when. I just had to be home by about 5pm. This gave me plenty of time for some more chilled exploring so I went back to the lake and decided to catch a boat to the lake... inside the lake.

Called Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, it's basically a small ring of land with a miniature lake in the middle, divided up into four pools (... yeah I didn't get the title wrong)

Some of the boats on the lake were pretty amusing...

But the trip was quite pleasant and just a few minutes.

The Island wasn't particularly interesting when compared to having spent 5 hours in the mountains, but it was still quite pretty in and of itself. This seemed to be a significant tourist spot and there was no place for peace. Looking at the view from the satellite, imagine the whole perimeter and the cross section was lined with tourists through and through. Not too pleasant.

After going back, my next stop was a place connected to the land bridge, a kind of nature reserve of sorts. No tickets or anything required, but surprisingly low on tourists. It didn't take long to find places with no people around. It was here I managed to sit on a lake-facing bench for a while, record dragonflies and ducks and other birds, with fish underneath chilling out.

As 1:40pm hit, it was time to book my train ticket home (took 2 minutes), work my way back to civilisation, get a taxi and head home. I wanted to go to some more challenging spots in the day but since I was booted from the hotel I had my full backpack on and probably would not have enjoyed such climbs in egg-fryingly hot temperatures.

Conclusion

I NEED to do this way more often. The trip takes barely longer than it takes me to travel to work every day. It's about 170km away from home, but at such speeds on the bullet train, it's barely a problem. Even though I 'splashed out' on hotels and first class seats, I worked out my expenditure at about $200 including everything.

I saw a lot of nature from frogs to crabs, fish to birds and more. In Shanghai, you're typically limited to cats, dogs, weasels and some bugs if you know where to look.

Two of my favourite things were these two drinks. I was in perpetual need of refreshment and this bayberry juice (left) was just what I needed at the right time every time. The right side, a green tea from Hangzhou, was so nice and refreshing, with its own little tea leaf strainer in the cap, that I took it home and continue to use it with the tin of Hanzghou tea I had complimentary in my hotel.

Living in a city, I think we all start to forget what nature is, and what nature is for. I felt immensely peaceful during and after this trip, having forgotten all about the politics, the whole China Vs the world, the Chinese authoritarianism, the Concentration camps, the human rights abuses and so on. For once, I just... enjoyed nature.

I will make sure to go again during Autumn. I bet your bottom dollar this place will transform into something of beauty as the leaves turn red.

TL;DR

I'll finish things off with some videos I took for those who can't be arsed to read such a lengthy post that has fuck all to do with them.

Video 1: The bullet train, The cave carvings of Buddha, the crystal clear coy carp pond, some very happy ants eating a gecko, the rainy temple paradise.

Video 2: Some Crabs. And a super-slow-mo of a dragonfly going up & down the lake