It’s my first time visiting Hangzhou! Since I was a kid I heard a lot about the West Lake which is a very famous spot for poet writers to make a lot of nice pieces here. The lake is indeed huge and lovely! No matter day time or night time, the view is fabulous. Unfortunately it was National Holiday, a lot of tourists that kind of disturbing due to the crowd and the noise. Night time in the West Lake, I saw a lot of locals singing and dancing together in groups, a bit like the night life in big parks in Beijing. Same hobbies!

My other impression about Hangzhou is that most taxi drivers are very tricky to tourists, luckily we have GPS to avoid a lot of problems. Foodwise it is so-so, we tried a lot but without much luck so far. Otherwise with such a nice lake if I live here I would go there everyday to enjoy the fresh air.

For the 3 days in Hangzhou, what I enjoyed most is the “放生池” (a pond to free captive animals)  next to the LeiFeng Pagoda 雷峰塔. There is a big pond with a nice island in the middle accommodated with thousands of fishes and tortoises there. It’s really a paradise for them ,:) they all look healthy! I even went back to feed the fish and tortoises with a lot of bread.

To see all these happy tortoises basking and swimming in such a big pond, it makes me think of my own. At home I have 4 red-heared sliders as pets. I got them when I was managing a factory in ZhaoQing City in 2004. Since it is a small city, nothing much to do except work, I decided to buy a few fishes and tortoises to accompany me. When we moved back to Beijing they came along with us by plane! I have them for 5 years already, we changed 3 fish tanks as they are adult size (30cms long) now. When I visited the pond full of happy tortoises, I asked myself if I am willing to free my tortoises there? Knowing a bit of myself, I am not sure… would you?