Hangzhou Botanical Gardens | Part II
7/21/2016
Hello everyone!
In the middle of our trip to Hangzhou we were planning to visit the Hengdian World Studios, aka the "Hollywood of China". Of course my dad wanted to go (as a Chinese drama watcher), but I was a bit skeptical. To travel from where we were staying to Hengdian would have taken several hours. But, we decided that we should go the next day since we didn't have anything else to do.
My dad had told me that he would wake me up early in the morning the next day so we could catch the bus to Hengdian. When I woke up, however, I looked at the time, and it was already past 10:00 a.m.
Just our luck-- there was a heavy rainstorm outside, so we decided to bail on the trip. After a couple hours just lying around refreshing Yahoo News, I decided that I needed to get out. I'm the type of person who gets really antsy when I stay inside all day on my phone. So, we decided to stop by the Botanical Gardens (植物館).
Because it was raining, there were very few other people visiting (which is great since everywhere in Hangzhou is usually packed). My dad wanted to get some Oufen (藕粉), which he ate frequently as a child. Oufen is this sweet, sticky paste made from lotus root (it's a bit hard to describe).
The Botanical Gardens are divided into various different sections with different types of plants. It's a huge stretch of land-- we didn't get to visit all the places because we only stayed there for a couple of hours.
The places we stopped by include: Watching Fish at Yuquan, the Azalea Garden (second to last picture), Han Meilin Art Museum, and a few other locations. One of the flower gardens we wanted to visit we actually couldn't find because the roads weren't finished.
After a couple hours, we left the gardens and went to go eat a late lunch. At this point, my shoes and socks were completely soaked. We went to a chain restuarant in China, and I ordered a bowl of pian er chuan noodles (片兒川) without meat, which was delicious. Just a couple hours later my aunt invited us to eat. Needless to say, we were completely stuffed.
If you like nature and hiking, the Botanical Gardens would definitely be a great place to visit. The greenery is really beautiful (definitely very different from where I live-- the desert). I saw a restaurant in the gardens but it looked like it was closed (although we did visit on a day when there were very few people). However, there were quite a few tea houses that were open, which was where we ate the oufen. As a nature lover, I really enjoyed this destination; it was definitely one of my favorite places we visited on this trip.
Alright, that's the end of this blog post. Thanks for reading!
mel
In the middle of our trip to Hangzhou we were planning to visit the Hengdian World Studios, aka the "Hollywood of China". Of course my dad wanted to go (as a Chinese drama watcher), but I was a bit skeptical. To travel from where we were staying to Hengdian would have taken several hours. But, we decided that we should go the next day since we didn't have anything else to do.
My dad had told me that he would wake me up early in the morning the next day so we could catch the bus to Hengdian. When I woke up, however, I looked at the time, and it was already past 10:00 a.m.
Just our luck-- there was a heavy rainstorm outside, so we decided to bail on the trip. After a couple hours just lying around refreshing Yahoo News, I decided that I needed to get out. I'm the type of person who gets really antsy when I stay inside all day on my phone. So, we decided to stop by the Botanical Gardens (植物館).
Because it was raining, there were very few other people visiting (which is great since everywhere in Hangzhou is usually packed). My dad wanted to get some Oufen (藕粉), which he ate frequently as a child. Oufen is this sweet, sticky paste made from lotus root (it's a bit hard to describe).
The Botanical Gardens are divided into various different sections with different types of plants. It's a huge stretch of land-- we didn't get to visit all the places because we only stayed there for a couple of hours.
The places we stopped by include: Watching Fish at Yuquan, the Azalea Garden (second to last picture), Han Meilin Art Museum, and a few other locations. One of the flower gardens we wanted to visit we actually couldn't find because the roads weren't finished.
After a couple hours, we left the gardens and went to go eat a late lunch. At this point, my shoes and socks were completely soaked. We went to a chain restuarant in China, and I ordered a bowl of pian er chuan noodles (片兒川) without meat, which was delicious. Just a couple hours later my aunt invited us to eat. Needless to say, we were completely stuffed.
If you like nature and hiking, the Botanical Gardens would definitely be a great place to visit. The greenery is really beautiful (definitely very different from where I live-- the desert). I saw a restaurant in the gardens but it looked like it was closed (although we did visit on a day when there were very few people). However, there were quite a few tea houses that were open, which was where we ate the oufen. As a nature lover, I really enjoyed this destination; it was definitely one of my favorite places we visited on this trip.
Alright, that's the end of this blog post. Thanks for reading!
mel
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