Paradise on Earth?

West Lake
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"In Heaven, there is paradise; on earth Suzhou and Hangzhou'.

For the Chinese, Hangzhou (along with Guilin) is the country's most famous tourist attraction. Now, maybe the Chinese have low expectations of paradise or maybe my expectations are abit on the high side but Hangzhou's West Lake (Xi Wu) is not all that. Yes, it is pretty but in my opinion, it is nothing spectacular. But then again, maybe we just weren't in the right part of the West Lake or maybe the 35+ degree heat and ridiculously scorching sun had something to do with us not appreciating Hangzhou as much as we should have - after all, it is pretty difficult to appreciate anything when as soon as you step out into the heat, sweat pours from places you never even before realised you could sweat from!

West Lake
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It also did not help that after an hour hiding in the air conditioning haven of a Starbucks (yes, I am ashamed to say that to escape the heat, I had to sucumb to Starbucks' temptation - but to my defence, they had a huge air conned conservatory Starbucks [perched at the city end of the West Lake), just when it had started to cool down and we were ready to re attempt enjoying the lake, the rain, thunder and lightning started and carried on until the late evening so that we had to abandon our visit of the lake for the day.

West Lake
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The next day, we reattempted our visit to the lake and I have to say that my opinion of Hangzhou didn't change. It is pretty but nothing at all spectacular.