Day 1 (Nov 5 Sunday):

We departed from HK for Hangzhou around noon. I bought two bottles of Rice Wine ("Gaifan") at the HK Free Duty Shop for our West Lake night cruise. The flight was very smooth and we arrived at Hangzhou right on schedule. Since we'd spend only half a day here, our tourist bus immediately took us to the first stop, Leifeng Pagoda. The bus can accommodate up to 30 plus people and so Peter turned the back row of seats into sleeping couch. No sooner when we were on our way, snack of all sort started to pass around. And the local guide (we also got Cindy from HK) Ah Ding, is well versed in Chinese history and throughout the entire week he kept feeding us amusing anecdotes.

Leifeng Pagoda is one of the renowned scenic spots in Hangzhou. Originally built in the 10th century, Leifeng Pagoda to stand in front of Jingxi Temple on Nanping Mountain; though failed to stand the test of time, the Pagoda collapsed in early 1900s. In 2002, Leifeng Pagoda was reconstructed; then comes back the typical Sunset Glow over West Lake, one of the ten charms of West Lake, as the Pagoda looks especially majestic when surrounded by the golden hues of the setting sun. With combination of a traditional aesthetic style and modern architecture techniques, Leifeng Pagoda affords a view of West Lake in its entirety. Source: China.com

We visited the basement of the pagoda for a glimpse of the old structure. No remnant of white snake though perhaps the poor creature was finally liberated in early 1900s when the pagoda collapsed. That's why the local people argued against the reconstruction of the pagoda since it might re-imprison the White Snake. Then we went up to the 4th & 5th floor to get a panoramic view of West Lake as well as the ceiling of the thousand buddas and bas relief of the famous sceneries of West Lake. After the pagoda tour, we took the first of our many group photos. Then we proceeded towards the Hangzhou Xintiandi along the West Lake Embankment. And we posed in front of the Legend of the Golden Buffalo and statue of Chang Xian (of Water Margin) who died defending Hangzhou after surrendered to the government.

Since our night cruise started around 20:00, so we spent about an hour at the Qinghefang History Street. Its my second tour of this street (Joe took me here last April). Due to time pressure I still couldn't pay a visit to the famed manor of "Red Tophat Merchant" Wu. Perhaps I've to do it on my 4th visit to this lovely city. The main part of the Qinghefang History Street you can find trinket & bric-a-brac shops, Chinese herbal clinic, local eatery (including a latter-day "Wu Da Long", a midget actually) etc.

The night cruise last about an hour. Thanks to Esther, we got preserved plum into one bottle of our aged rice wine and the wives sure loved it. We got full moon since it was Sept 15 of the lunar calendar. And we called Jimmy who couldn't join us in this tour. Full moon, light breeze, fish jumping out of water, the wind and the willow, laser light on Leifeng Pagoda and other structures, good friends plus the rice wine, what more can we ask for except those who can't join us!

After the cruise we'd our dinner at Chang Sang Kee Restaurant which is famous for its duck soup. Well the eight schoolmates shared one table and the spouses other. And we maintained such arrangement throughout the tour. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and consumed bottle after bottle of local beer, no Blue/Black Label or Bordeaux/Burgundy though.

Then we checked into the 5-star "Red Chamber Hotel" near the train station. Before we hit the sack, about ten of us (me included) loiter to the neighborhood and the girls refilled their bags with local snacks.