Page 21 - 18 Day China Sample

DAY 14 SHANGHAI (Breakfast, Lunch) At approximately 7:15 AM be ready in the lobby of the hotel in preparation for your transfer to the Shanghai train station. Your guide will see you off at the train station. 9:00 AM Depart Shanghai via high-speed train (Train # G 7305) to Hangzhou. Total travel time: 51 minutes. First Class seating. Hangzhou lies close to the mouth of the Qian Tan River at the western extremity of the huge estuary of the Gulf of Hangzhou. Two thousand years ago there was nothing here but a sandbar built up by the silt carried downstream by the river. It collected between two fingers of land that jutted into the estuary. The inhabitants built a dike to reinforce the bar, and thereby created what is present-day Xi Hu, or West Lake, perhaps the most famous lake in China. 9:51 AM Arrive Hangzhou. You will be met outside the train station by your local guide and escorted to a waiting vehicle. Enjoy the day exploring Huangzhou. Enjoy a private oar boat ride on West Lake and visit Hua Gang Park. West Lake, its name derived from its location west of Hangzhou city, has been famous for centuries. Indeed it has a history as long as Hangzhou itself and became famous as far back as the Han Dynasty. All around there are groves of trees which come into blossom at different times of the year: peach in spring, acacia in autumn, plum in winter. The lotus blooms on the lake during summer.