Hangzhou & Observations on China

Today, I made a day-trip to Hangzhou. It's one of the top destinations for domestic tourists in China. Its most famous feature is the West Lake. The site is full of natural beauty enhanced by landscaping, temples, man-made islands and causeways. It's reminescent of Bei Hai and the Summer Palace in Beijing, except that it's way bigger. Even though I've nearly died of an overdose of Chinese gardens in Beijing, I still enjoyed my stroll around the West Lake today. The beauty of the place explains the hordes of couples taking their wedding pictures in the area.

Now, here are some miscellaneous observations I made in the past days...

1) Electric bikes
There are lots of bikes and scooters in China. Now, many of them are electric. No need to buy gas and no need to pollute. For both electric bikes and scooters, the driver can pedal to save the battery (and probably recharge it) and then use the electric engine for another while.

2) TV
TV sucks in China. Half the channels are from CCTV (China Central TeleVision), the government's TV organization. The news are subject to government censorship and the shows are boring. IPTV (TV sent over Internet) is very popular in China. Some hotels have IP setup boxes. The quality of the image is iffy, though, and the signal often chokes due to network congestion. However, these IPTV's find there way all over: in buses; at bus stops, ... In taxis, you can also find TV with digital content (mostly ads) to "entertain" the passengers.

3) Noise pollution
China is not unlike Japan in that is it a noisy country. TV's too often send you not only their images, but also their unwanted sounds. Music is often played on sound systems in historic places to create a mood (but only manage to turn the authentic in to the tackey). Car drivers honk not only to warn of danger, but also just to let others know of their presence.

4) Lots of people
We all know there are lots of Chinese. But, this really sunk in for me when I traveled from Shanghai to Hangzhou by train. The route is about 150km. At no point was there a lack of human settlements for the whole journey. Imagine going from Montreal to Ottawa and seeing houses and buildings all along the way.