Whirlwind In A Mama's Head

We arrived in Hangzhou by regular train in the evening, 12 hours later than I had originally planned. We were tired and cold, but the hotel that I booked was not too far away. We noticed immediately that Hangzhou was a very different city from Suzhou. It was hustling and bustling with mostly a younger crowd. We took the metro from the railway station to get to our hotel. The metro looked newer and more modern with lights on the station map. It's still nothing compared to Japan's trains but this is already pretty good. It also surprised me a bit that in the metro Miss Kiki got offered seats not just once but several times. She almost always decline the offer but these gestures were not something I had expected to find in China...  I had booked Ren He Hangzhou Hotel  via Trip.com as it wasn't available at Agoda or Traveloka. The price was good compared to booking directly on the hotel's website. However, our booking only held my reservation until 8 pm ...

It was actually a blessing in disguise that I mistakenly booked the wrong hotel and ended up staying in Shantang area. After we checked in at Scholar's Hotel Shantang , we warmed ourselves up with some tea and then headed out to the street right in front of the hotel to find something to eat. We walked and walked, and even though there were many stores selling snacks and small cafes, we couldn't make a decision and ended up in KFC! Hahaha.... But then, even in KFC there we tried something special... I ordered a special sandwich with crawfish inside... it was quite good! Shantang Street was more of a tourist area but it was very pretty with all the red lanterns hanging and lit up. There were souvenir shops, yogurt and alcohol shops, candy shops, and many more... To my surprise, shopping in China so far has been quite comfortable, no one was haggling, hassling, touting, nor chasing you. I felt comfortable browsing slowly and leaving when nothing interested me. I didn...