This weekend we went to Hangzhou, which is about an hour and a half south of Shanghai. We ended up on the 7:10AM train. Even though we had to get up extraordinarily early to get to the train on time, it was definitely worth the trip. We stayed in WuShanYi International Hostel. It was a fantastic place. I forgot to take pictures of the hostel itself because we were in a hurry to sight see. So, here is the link to the hostel. It had three twin beds and was super cute. They had four kittens that lived there as well as a dog that we played with for a bit.http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g298559-d1198942-w2-Wushanyi_International_Youth_Hostel-Hangzhou_Zhejiang.htmlAfter checking in and dropping of our stuff in our room we rented bikes for a whopping 10kuai (about $1.25) for the entire day. We biked around the lake, which is the defining feature of Hangzhou. Hangzhou is known for being very beautiful and a lot of people go there on weekends to get away from Shanghai. Unfortunately, everyone has just about the same idea so Hangzhou was not quite as secluded and natural as we thought, but it was still worth going. Biking around was definitely an experience. I think Hangzhou is a bit more bike friendly than Shanghai, so it made travelling around the city a bit easier. We stopped for lunch and a boat ride around the lake. Boat rides are probably the most effective way to see the scenery around Hangzhou, as you are in the middle of it. We stopped at an island in the middle of the lake called three pools mirroring the moon. It was made up of four smaller lakes surrounded by small walkways and bridges within the larger West Lake. Again, it was very crowded and very touristy. We hit a bit of snag after this when we tried to return to the dock that we left from. The boat company did not take us to the same dock and we did not know where they had dropped us. After a while of consulting locals and taking a taxis we finally found our bikes again.After being in the lake we decided to see the sights around it. We biked all the way to a temple on the far side of the lake. I believe I have been to this temple before. We did not have time to go in, as it was about to close and there were tons of people (mostly in tour groups with matching hats). We did buy some famous tea from the Hangzhou region though, a variety of green tea called Longjing. Once we figured out where we were we decided it would be shorter for us to go straight to dinner.The restaurant we ate is called LouWaiLou, and is the oldest restaurant in Hangzhou, dating back to the 1800s. It is known for its vinegar fish, which sounds like something you would not want to eat, but in fact it was very tasty. Here is a link explaining the story behind this dish.http://inhangzhou.com/hangzhou/?p=1461When you order the vinegar fish they actually bring our your fish (a type of carp) to your table live in order to show you that it is fresh. The fish, when cooked, is presented in whole with the fins and head still attached. It was really good, but I am not very skilled at eating whole fish and swallowed a fish bone, which was uncomfortable but not harmful. We also ordered some fried celery with lily bulb and some quick fried eel with meat and bamboo shoots. All of the dishes were fantastic and I hope I get to eat them again sometime soon.The best part of our trip was riding around the lake to and from dinner. We realized that we had been going slightly up-hill for most of the afternoon on bikes with only one gear and were really excited to be going downhill on our way back. We got to ride on a causeway in the middle of the lake and see everyone out at dusk. We also caught a water show, which I tried to take pictures of, but didn't get any good ones.The next morning we woke up early, again, in order to see a Buddhist sight a small distance outside of Hangzhou. The sight has Buddhas as well as other sculptures carved into rock on the side of a river. We looked in a tour book and took an hour bus ride, one taxi, and an half our bus ride to get to Long men. Unfortunately this was not the sight of the Buddhas. It was an ancient town preserved for tourists. We kept asking where the Buddha was, only knowing how to say really really big Buddha, but we were led to some shrines instead. Next time we will look up the true name before going. The good part of this mistake was that we got to see the ancient town as well as some farm land. We actually felt, finally, like we were in China. It was an interesting walk to get to one of the Buddhas through the farms. We walked on a two foot wide path to a "more developed" six foot wide dirt road. The pictures were worth it though. Here is a link to what we were trying to seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longmen_GrottoesWe finally made it back to Shanghai after a several questionable buses and a "standing room only" train, meaning we had to sit on our suitcase on the floor. We were completely exhausted but very pleased with our trip. Look on facebook for pictures when I can finally get the uploader to work.