A Visit From Sarah

Living abroad is very difficult when your children have become non-dependents.  This means that most countries won't add them to your visa.  So when your children come to visit, it is the best time ever.

Sarah has not been to China for some time.  She lived with us for the first 3 years of our time in China.  So it was absolutely amazing having her here with us even though it was so short.

So on my birthday, 10th March, we left to go and pick up our daughter Sarah from Hangzhou International Airport.  And because it has just been Chinese New Year, the decor was still up and beautiful.

Spring time is so beautiful here.  And the flowers are either budding or have bloomed already.

We took Sarah to the Century Mall to have dinner at the Japanese Restaurant.  And then of course, so retail therapy.

Most of the time Sarah was here she was busy with her assignments which had deadlines during her stay.  And I was also working, so during the day she went out with Paul on some walk-abouts.  On one weekend we joined up with E-Travel, a tour company which is fantastic in their service by the way, and made our way to 1000 Islands lake.

Thousand Island Lake is one of the biggest man made Lake and Islands in China.

It was a long day.  We left home at 6.30am and met up with the tour group in Hangzhou city centre.  It takes about 2 and half hours to get there.  We went during April and it was still very cold.  If you go during this time, make sure you have layers because there are so many stairs you walk up and down on the first Island that you have to shed your clothes.  But because there is so much water around, as soon as you cool off, it gets very cold.

But it is a wonderful trip.  We visited 3 Island using boats to get to them.  The first one has lots of stairs to climb, the second is smaller but has a wonderful view area , and the third is much smaller.  

This is at the entrance of the 1000 Lakes, near the ticket office and where you board the boats.

The first Island is about Love, Locks and Keys.  (And a lot of stairs). Below are some pictures of our tour.

The pictures below are from the second Island.  It is definitely smaller but higher and this is where we find the look out spot with such great views.  Here you have to use a cable car to get up to the top.  After going back down by cable car, we came across  a walk way  that joined two small islands together with a floating platform where you can participate in water sports during the hotter months.

 Such a pity that on our visit the weather was so overcast.  I can only imagine what it would look like on a clear day.    Then we were off on the boat again to the third Island.  This island is very small, but great photo opportunities here.

Kerry, our eldest daughter, works here in China too.  So she made her way here from Hefei for a weekend.  And having a bigger sister means lots of gifts. It was really lovely having both my girls with me.  These have become such rare occasions.

On the weekend that Kerry was with us, we took both the girls to see a little bit of Hangzhou.  Kerry has been with us before during Chinese New Year, so we took the girls for a walk close to EFC.

Kerry had to go back home as she had school.  So we were back to just Sarah staying with us.  Before Sarah left, the last weekend, we did some more touristy trips with her so she could see where we lived.  She has already been to Rizhao, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong so we felt she needed some experience in Hangzhou and the weather was excellent.

At Blue Frog

At the Leifeng Pagoda

Former Residence of Xueyan Hu

This is really spectacular with the beautiful Chinese architecture and the caves under the residence.

Heifang Pedestrian Street.

This is a must do for tourists.  There is lots of food shops / stalls, and shops.  It reminds me of Shanghai in some parts.

And as happy as I get at the beginning of the visit, my heart breaks knowing it is time to leave.  My girls make me very proud to be called their mother.  On the way to take Sarah back to the airport to get her flight back to South Africa.  Don't wait too long to visit again.  Miss you before you even left.

Sorry for not writing on my blog for so long.  In the next couple of blog posts you will see how very busy I have been.  I know that is not an excuse so I do plan to upload until I am up to date .

Keep reading and I will keep writing.