Cleanliness: The Tourist Factor

Somewhere along the line I lost track of a day. I intented to arrive in Hangzhou Sunday morning to catch the Hangzhou hashers for a run, but it turns out it was Monday. I was a little bummed about that, but the good news is that I now know what day it is. If I had known that all the celebrations in Nanchang last weekend were for March 15th, China's national "Quality Day" holiday, I would of not made such an egregious error. Chong informed me that Quality Day was created a decade or so ago as a reminder that China needed to improve the quality of the goods they produced. There is also apparently a degree of intervention by the police to help "promote" better quality. Chong says he has seen a noticeable difference.
So here's the rundown: I stepped off an overnight train early Monday morning in Hangzhou, grabbed a room at a hostel and then a cup of coffee - I finally found cheap, good coffee! I quickly realized Hangzhou is incredibly clean; and relative to the rest of the Chinese cities I have visited so far, it is immaculate. This city of 6 million mostly encircles West Lake, a beautiful and serene lake about 1.5 miles across and completely surrounded by gardens and manicured walkways. In terms of walking and upkeep, this place definitely out-does any Chinese city I have visited so far. Which is consistent with the fact that it is flooded with tourists. But this time, the tourist base has much more international representation. From Guangzhou to Nanchang I was amazed at how few westerners I had seen. Most of those I had seen were business types staying close to the hotels, exchange students and less than 4 backpackers - a stark contrast to my past backpacking trips. Not so in Hangzhou - where previously my whiteness was turning heads lefts and right, here I'm just another white guy. The little bit of anonymity has been nice, but the downside is that now most places cater to westerners - hence why I found 'cheap, good coffee' - and getting off the beaten path has become a little challenging.

I spent two days in Hangzhou. Did lots of walking and picture taking - I seriously could not take enough pictures. I rented a bike and biked up into the surrounding hills with loads of tea plantations and then coasted down - very, very quickly (enhanced by the, umm, poor-functioning brakes). I also found a bookstore - with books in english - replinishing my reading material. And finally, I was able to meet up with Chong at Zhejiang University. He is working on his research project now in his senior year. He looks like he might follow the path of an organic chemist - his hood is a disaster. He gave me a tour of Hangzhou and explained alot of things about China that had previously escaped me (such as Quality day, the train lettering system, etc.) due to my inability to understand a single word other than those for 'hello', 'thank you' and 'beer'. He is very excited about heading off to grad school in America next year - watch out everybody.

Right now I'm in Suzhou and setting my sights for Shanghai this weekend.