Travel Journal

Live the adventures of Dan Walker's travels through reading his travel journal. The travel journals are listed below in descending order of date. To search the travel journals, use the keyword search at the bottom of the page.

Journal Entry:

Trips | Rolls Around The World 2007

Wednesday, October 03, 2007 01:31:30
Rolls Around the World 2007: 27 Suzhou to Hangzhou, China Monday, October 1, 2007 Miles for the day - 104 (167 km) Miles to date: 12,581 (20,247`km) The Sheraton Hotel rates best for breakfast, comfortable bed and landscaping for the trip. The water gardens and swimming pool area surrounded by old style Chinese architecture are wonderful. There was good road but heavy traffic on a hot humid day as we covered the short distance to Hangzhou. We stopped for gas and a car wash while enjoying the first sunshine in a few days. We drove in the opposite direction to our final destination, placing us 180 km from Shanghai at the end of the day. The greater Hangzhou area population is 6,080,000, while the city itself has 1.7 million. Habitation in the area traces back 4,700 years. The city was established by 1st Qing Emperor 2,200 years ago as the southern terminus of the Grand Canal from Beijing, located on lower reaches of the Qiantang River in the Yangtze Delta. It was capital of the Southern Song Dynasty in the 12th to 13th centuries, when Marco Polo visited. It is now capital of Zhejiang Province, but is famous as one of 7 ancient Chinese capitals The Shangri-La Hotel is located across the street from beautiful West Lake near Solitary Hill. After check in and lunch a local driver and guide picked us up for a brief walking tour of the older part of the city. Much of the ancient city was destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion in the mid 19th century, but protected enclaves of old buildings still exist. The city has tree lines streets and a beautiful drive around West Lake - however today is National Day (celebrating the take-over of China by Mao Tse-Tung in 1949), so the area was crawling with Chinese tourists and traffic was brutal. Merry, our local guide, suggested a restaurant a short walk along the lakeshore from our hotel. The main part of the restaurant was super busy, with a wait of over an hour for a table, but we found an annex next door where we were seated immediately to enjoy a superb meal. This restaurant was founded in 1848. Back at the hotel we found that housekeeping had redone the bed in our room, removing the feather underlay, duvet and pillows and replacing them with something I'm not allergic to. I still have chest congestion from the last feather pillow I slept on - the amount of feathers I'd have been surrounded with on the bed here would have done me in! Tuesday, October 2, 2007 Breakfast at the Shangri-La rivalled the Sheraton for best of the trip, but like another 5 star hotel we visited yesterday it did not have one seat in the huge lobby, forcing anyone waiting to stand. It is the first place in the world I've seen hotels that do not have seats in the lobby! This was also the first Chinese hotel we stayed in that charged for in-room internet. After a drive around the West Lake causeway we walked to a boat dock to board a comfortable, uncrowded wood hulled tour boat. The tour company must have chartered it, as other boats on the lake were packing people in like sardines. The other tourists on the boat were Chinese, but surprisingly half of them were from Vancouver, Canada! Our leisurely one-hour trip around the lake gave us a great view of the islands, the Mausoleum of General Yue Fei, Six Harmonies Pagoda in the distance and the Ling Yin Temple as well as many ancient bridges and buildings. The lake is shallow - 1 ½ to 3 meters (5 to 10 ft) deep, with three sides bordered by mountains and the third by tall buildings of city centre. It was once a bay in the Yellow Sea, but silt from the Qiantang River filled between it and the ocean creating the 3,680 sq. km. lake. After a stop for lunch we climbed the steps to the Pagoda of the Six Harmonies. A plaque says it was originally 165 meters (541 ft) high when built in 970 AD, but when rebuilt in 1163 after being destroyed during a rebellion it was its current 60 meters (197 ft) tall. It took an hour to drive the relatively short distance back to the hotel in dense traffic. A wedding party at the hotel took advantage of the parked Rolls for some wedding shots - and Marilynn satisfied her wish to have some photos of a Chinese bride in the car. Dinner with James was at another good restaurant a short taxi ride from the hotel. He is great at finding restaurants with excellent food and low prices! Tomorrow we drive the short distance to Shanghai, our final destination of the trip. One would think after all the obstacles we have overcome we would be exalted to see the end in sight, but the opposite is true. We are both a bit depressed at the thought of the driving coming to an end, and shipping the always faithful old Rolls back to Canada. It wouldn't take a huge amount of persuasion to have us continue through South East Asia to Australia and return via the southern route we had originally planned to take! That is, of course, not an option due to the length of time to complete the arrangements, and the fact that we would not have gone all the way around the world - but it is an enticing fantasy!

Wednesday, October 03, 2007 01:31:30

Rolls Around the World 2007: 27 Suzhou to Hangzhou, China

Monday, October 1, 2007

Miles for the day - 104 (167 km) Miles to date: 12,581 (20,247`km)

The Sheraton Hotel rates best for breakfast, comfortable bed and landscaping for the trip. The water gardens and swimming pool area surrounded by old style Chinese architecture are wonderful.

There was good road but heavy traffic on a hot humid day as we covered the short distance to Hangzhou. We stopped for gas and a car wash while enjoying the first sunshine in a few days. We drove in the opposite direction to our final destination, placing us 180 km from Shanghai at the end of the day.

The greater Hangzhou area population is 6,080,000, while the city itself has 1.7 million. Habitation in the area traces back 4,700 years. The city was established by 1st Qing Emperor 2,200 years ago as the southern terminus of the Grand Canal from Beijing, located on lower reaches of the Qiantang River in the Yangtze Delta. It was capital of the Southern Song Dynasty in the 12th to 13th centuries, when Marco Polo visited. It is now capital of Zhejiang Province, but is famous as one of 7 ancient Chinese capitals

The Shangri-La Hotel is located across the street from beautiful West Lake near Solitary Hill. After check in and lunch a local driver and guide picked us up for a brief walking tour of the older part of the city. Much of the ancient city was destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion in the mid 19th century, but protected enclaves of old buildings still exist. The city has tree lines streets and a beautiful drive around West Lake - however today is National Day (celebrating the take-over of China by Mao Tse-Tung in 1949), so the area was crawling with Chinese tourists and traffic was brutal.

Merry, our local guide, suggested a restaurant a short walk along the lakeshore from our hotel. The main part of the restaurant was super busy, with a wait of over an hour for a table, but we found an annex next door where we were seated immediately to enjoy a superb meal. This restaurant was founded in 1848.

Back at the hotel we found that housekeeping had redone the bed in our room, removing the feather underlay, duvet and pillows and replacing them with something I'm not allergic to. I still have chest congestion from the last feather pillow I slept on - the amount of feathers I'd have been surrounded with on the bed here would have done me in!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Breakfast at the Shangri-La rivalled the Sheraton for best of the trip, but like another 5 star hotel we visited yesterday it did not have one seat in the huge lobby, forcing anyone waiting to stand. It is the first place in the world I've seen hotels that do not have seats in the lobby! This was also the first Chinese hotel we stayed in that charged for in-room internet.

After a drive around the West Lake causeway we walked to a boat dock to board a comfortable, uncrowded wood hulled tour boat. The tour company must have chartered it, as other boats on the lake were packing people in like sardines. The other tourists on the boat were Chinese, but surprisingly half of them were from Vancouver, Canada!

Our leisurely one-hour trip around the lake gave us a great view of the islands, the Mausoleum of General Yue Fei, Six Harmonies Pagoda in the distance and the Ling Yin Temple as well as many ancient bridges and buildings. The lake is shallow - 1 ½ to 3 meters (5 to 10 ft) deep, with three sides bordered by mountains and the third by tall buildings of city centre. It was once a bay in the Yellow Sea, but silt from the Qiantang River filled between it and the ocean creating the 3,680 sq. km. lake.

After a stop for lunch we climbed the steps to the Pagoda of the Six Harmonies. A plaque says it was originally 165 meters (541 ft) high when built in 970 AD, but when rebuilt in 1163 after being destroyed during a rebellion it was its current 60 meters (197 ft) tall.

It took an hour to drive the relatively short distance back to the hotel in dense traffic. A wedding party at the hotel took advantage of the parked Rolls for some wedding shots - and Marilynn satisfied her wish to have some photos of a Chinese bride in the car. Dinner with James was at another good restaurant a short taxi ride from the hotel. He is great at finding restaurants with excellent food and low prices!

Tomorrow we drive the short distance to Shanghai, our final destination of the trip. One would think after all the obstacles we have overcome we would be exalted to see the end in sight, but the opposite is true. We are both a bit depressed at the thought of the driving coming to an end, and shipping the always faithful old Rolls back to Canada. It wouldn't take a huge amount of persuasion to have us continue through South East Asia to Australia and return via the southern route we had originally planned to take! That is, of course, not an option due to the length of time to complete the arrangements, and the fact that we would not have gone all the way around the world - but it is an enticing fantasy!