Trip to Hangzhou: Day 2

Today we decided to take a boat tour onto the lake. The one we chose drops off at one of the islands in the middle of the lake. We left with a full boat of Chinese tourists, and the man in front of us was at first taking pictures outside, but then clearly turned the camera and was discreetly taking picture of the boys and I. We got off on the island and began walking the paths around it. It is basically a square with famous bridges that cross through the center of the island, which in turn created four lakes within the island. Sort of confusing, but very pretty.

The only drawback was that we underestimated that it is a huge tourist attraction for the Chinese. An interesting fact about the Chinese as tourists--they do not just travel as their immediate family, or even with another family. They always travel in large groups of at least 20-50 people. And for whatever reason they happen to be extremely boisterous and animated in these groups. So, as we walked around, we continued to first bump into different groups. First their tour guide holding their little flag and then the entire tour group. Another interesting fact is that they all have some coordinating theme. It may be a hat, a button, a shirt, etc., but they are all matched up with the flag the tour guide is holding. My final interesting fact, is that when walking towards a Chinese person, even when they see you coming, they rarely move out of your way. So heading towards a large group like this can be a challenge when pushing a stroller and trying to get Danny through the mass of humanity.

The funniest incident was one lady who even though she saw us coming literally did not move over on the sidewalk (and there was plenty of room for her to move) until she was nearly toe to toe with Dustin. We are not quite sure why they do this, but it makes it especially hard to get around a group as they sort of come at you like a wall that does not let you pass unless you push your way through.

As we traveled around the island we decided to go over one of the famous walkways. Dustin had us go a few feet ahead of him so he could take our picture. Afterwards, a nice women approached and asked if she could take her picture with us. We said yes, and boy did we make a mistake. Somehow, the yes to a picture with her turned into a yes to pictures with all 5 individuals in her group (they were a small group of friends within a larger tour group). One would think that a group photo would have sufficed, but they each needed their individual shots. After what felt like 10 minutes, we finally were able to shut it down and move on. The funny part of it all is that Josh really likes the camera and has learned to say cheese. After we left this group, the next Chinese person that we ran into (it was a couple of minutes), Josh screamed out Cheese. I told Dustin, he is now programmed to think that every Chinese person wants his picture. We tried to avoid all tour groups from that point on, but I did notice people positioning themselves around us taking photos on their phones of us. This at least was discreet and did not bother the children as much. After the photo op and the large loud crowds (we are trying to escape into some calming nature on this trip, so the crowds were not doing it for us), we grabbed the boat back to the mainland.

Back on the mainland, we continued on through the park area and headed our way to a famous street with little shops. It was a little of a tourist trap area, but it was still nice to look at what they had. We ran into a group of college students from North Carolina and had a quick visit with them. After the shops we recharged at McDonalds and then hit a few more shops. After the long morning, we headed back for naps and did dinner at the hotel.