[Itinerary Page]The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
May 4 - Shanghai to Hangzhou
Another travel day ... which generally means not a lot to report. As a change of pace (and a matter of common sense) we took the train to Hangzhou rather than volunteer for another plane ride. The high-speed train from Shanghai only takes about 90 minutes so we chose the four-star Holiday Inn Shanghai Downtown as our base in town since it is located right next to the train station. It was nothing like what Americans have come to think of as a Holiday Inn, with perhaps the best breakfast and most comfortable bed of the trip so far. Who ever thought I would be praising meal service at a Holiday Inn?
I wasn't sure just what to expect from the Chinese railroad system. After a flurry of cell phone calls, Miao was able to get us all first class tickets -- which means soft seats rather than hard seats. Given that the fare was only about US$10 each, it was hardly a splurge. Best of all, it let us wait in the First Class Lounge rather than in the holding pen with everyone else. That may sound snobby, but the standards that most Chinese are quite happy with would be difficult for most Americans who are not used to dense crowds.
The train was new and spotlessly clean. The short ride to Hangzhou (pronounced like "hong-joe") was smooth and comfortable. Each seat has a large fold-down table to work on, plenty of legroom -- even electrical outlets to keep the computer charged up. I understand the slow speed trains are not quite as well-appointed as the one we took. Certainly they are all much newer.
Personally, I would have liked more train travel on this trip, but the distances we normally had to travel between our various destinations would have meant that most trips would have been 12+ hours. That is a long time to sit ... although in looking back on it, I'm not sure we would have lost much more time than we did by flying!
We are staying in the Zhejiang International Hotel in Hangzhou -- our first five-star hotel of the trip. The rooms are bigger and there are certainly more creature comforts than in the lesser properties. Certainly Margene is happy ... and that's enough to have it work for me!
© 2008 Restaurant Doctor