how picturesque and clean this one was. The
government has taken great care to transform
it: in 2003, many pedestrian walkways were
built and a new area of restaurants, cafes and
teahouses was established along the lake’s
walkways.
It was late afternoon, and we went for a
little stroll out to the small island in front of the
hotel and found ourselves alone playing hide
and seek amongst old pagodas. Come armed
with your camera as special viewing points,
marked with official and colourful names such
as Autumn Moon on Calm Lake and Twin
Peaks Piercing the Clouds, abound.
Although my three-year-old is a great
travel companion, I knew that rather than
spending hours wandering the walkways, the
way to her heart would be with a dip in a pool.
After we’d had our fill of the lake for the day,
we returned to the Shangri-La’s indoor pool,
where she happily splashed around. Dinner
that night was a trip to the hotel’s Italian
restaurant. Although I normally prefer to eat
local, we were visiting Hangzhou during the
bird flu scare and I had promised my husband
we would be careful. So that, combined with a
weary toddler, meant that our first Hangzhou
meal was a quick and easy pizza.
Boats, bikes and ballroom
The following day we were up early and, like
Marco Polo himself, ready to explore. There
are a number of ways to see the lake, from
boats to golf buggies to free bikes stationed at
various points. We decided to do it in luxury
and hired a private sampan for HK$200. It
was such a treat to have the beautiful wooden
sampan all to ourselves and we spent the 45
minutes traversing the lake waving to others
and basking in the sun.
We disembarked near to Calming the
Waves Bridge (I just love these names) and
found ourselves in a park at Flowers Harbour.
Mums and bubs alike can enjoy a walk around
the park, checking out the koi ponds teeming
with golden fish.
Nearing lunchtime, we flagged down a
taxi to drive us out to the tea villages. Armed
with my tourist map and my daughter’s
Chinese language skills, we landed in the
pretty town of Meijiawu, where outdoor
cafes line the stream and you can sample the
local favourite Longjing tea. We ambled into
the first restaurant we saw and were served
refreshing tea and watermelon seeds. I would
have happily sampled the delicious-looking
seafood and poultry, but we were really trying
to be careful and ended up ordering fried rice
with vegetables. After lunch, we snuck into
Meijiawu’s beautiful tea plantations to watch
the workers from afar.
Returning to West Lake with our full
bellies, we continued our circumnavigation
of it. If you have older kids, it would be fun to
rent bikes at the free bike rental points (make
sure to bring ID). Better still, hotels, including
the Shangri-La, rent out sturdier-looking
bikes with helmets. I had promised my three-
year-old that we could find a park with swings
December 2013
97
