Bike tour around West Lake

Today's program included West Lake. It is the main attraction of Hangzhou and is visited by millions of tourists every year. Once you've seen West Lake, you'll understand why. It is simply beautiful here.

We started with the 'Viewing Fish and Flower Garden'. It is supposed to allow you to do exactly what the name says - view fish and flowers. Even Richard Nixon was invited here when the relations between the USA and China were being established on a new basis. However, the garden is much older and can be traced back more than 1,000 years.

West Lake offers a variety of beautiful views. Everywhere our guide said that this is one of the top ten attractions of West Lake. Overall, there were definitely 30 top ten attractions. The 'Three Ponds Mirroring the Moon' are particularly important to the Chinese. These are three small pagodas that look a bit like buoys and are arranged on the water like a triangle. Quite unspectacular. However, in September during the Moon Festival, the full moon is reflected in this triangle. This is even broadcast live on TV and all Chinese people want to see it in person. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take a proper photo of the buoys.

After visiting the garden, we took a boat to the eastern side of the lake. The bike tour started from there. There are no photos of that, as we had to concentrate on the traffic. Something or someone is constantly crossing your path - the Chinese cross the road without any look, simply stop, drive over the pedestrian path with their car, etc. It was really an amazing experience and we were quite proud of ourselves for making it.

By then, it was about 35 degrees and we were glad to get into our air-conditioned hotel room. After dinner, we went out in front of the hotel again, to watch the daily light show. It was truly incredible. The show takes place every evening and is free. There is a water show with music, and the high-rise buildings are coordinated with an LED choreography. Finally, there is an LED animation of the entire skyline. It's absolutely amazing. We had a huge event when a light show was performed on the skyline of Frankfurt for the FIFA World Cup. Here, they do it twice every evening (at 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm). Tens of thousands of people watch it.

Of course, you can only see it inadequately in the photos. If you have the chance to go to Hangzhou, don't miss it.

Finally, I took three more pictures of the 'Place of Life': the Sun (our hotel), the Moon (the concert hall), and the Stars (the city administration).