West Lake, Hangzhou, China. A morning run.

West Lake 西湖 (Xi Hu), Hangzhou, China.

After a run at The Bund, Shanghai, I was tempted to do a similar run at the West Lake  西湖 (Xi Hu),  Hangzhou since our hotel is very near to the lake.  West Lake was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011. So I woke up early in the morning and started my run at 6am. It is less than 10 mins run to the lake. The first thing I noticed is the misty surrounding around the lake. A nice and serene atmosphere. The second thing I noticed is the huge numbers of senior citizens exercising around the lake.

Since I did not carry any water bottle, so my run has to be less than 80 mins and have to be back for the breakfast at the hotel. Comparing the run at The Bund, Shanghai, the run at West Lake, Hangzhou was a better place to run. The atmosphere and the scenery were just fantastic. In addition, I noticed that they are a lot of senior citizens running along the lake. And they are much older than me. The only reason they are drawing attention to me is I was wearing my Vibrams Five Fingers. They keep looking at my feet.

Views along the lake

The surprising part of the run is that some of these senior citizens run in groups and there were 20 to 30 of them in a group. And some of them is in their 70s. And they run with a flag and whistle just like in army training. So if there are so many senior citizens that can run of course we have to keep up. But the most interesting part of the run was that they are many interesting places along the lake. I could have keep on running watching the buildings and structures along the lake. Since I have did not bring any hydration and have to be back for the hotel breakfast, I just to control my urge of running further. I later found out that about the place that I stopped before running back to the hotel was called 楼外楼 Lou Wai Lou (Tower Beyond Tower). A place where they served the most expensive cuisine in Hangzhou by the West Lake.

Runners at West Lake, Hangzhou

We joined a day tour in Hangzhou for this trip which I don't really like because they waste a lot of time taking you to shops to buy stuffs that you don't want. And if you don't buy any stuffs, you can see the sour face of the tourist guide. However, there are more than 20 of us, a day tour with proper transport and a tour guide will be a better option. If they are only a few of us, the best option will be to rent a bicycle and cycle around Hangzhou. Since they are a lot of stations for bicycle rental.

Words of wisdom from Hangzhou, China