Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China

Late November saw us arrive in beautiful Hangzhou for the third time this year. We came here in late July with our American cousin Dick to see the total eclipse of the sun, and again briefly a month ago after our hike on Yellow Mountain. But this time we stayed a fortnight and started to experience the daily rhythm of the city more from the perspective of a resident than a visitor merely passing through. Each evening during peak hour, swarms of bikes whooshed past our hotel lobby and across the road crowds of city workers jostled into the restaurants for a hot dinner to provide fortification against the cold outside. 

Winter has returned to China and temperatures are plummeting but there are still a few pockets of late autumn colour about. On Monday we joined a few thousand other visitors on a stroll around vast West Lake in the city centre. The crisp cold air was much more comfortable for walking than the oppressive heat and humidity we encountered in July, and West Lake in its early winter apparition was as serene as ever.

Early Tuesday morning saw us speeding out of town on an east-bound train. The China Rail Gazette on our seat had a story about China Rail aspiring to be the leader in high-speed conventional trains. It wasn't idle speculation. The view outside our window blurred past at 201 km/hr, and parallel with the track was a new one under construction that when completed will enable the train we were on to cruise along at its design speed of 350 km/hr. A similar train is already operating at that speed between Beijing and Tianjin. We pored over the other impressive developments in rail outlined in the Gazette, then sank back in our seats content in the knowledge that we were in expert hands.