Just came back from China on 31 Dec 2008. The weather is very cold for us Malaysian. In fact, there was snow flakes in Hangzhou (HZ) for a few minutes on the 21 Dec. I saw it from my hotel window. On certain days, there is strong wind. Everyday, the sky is dark at around 5.30pm.

The hotel room is clean and the service of the staff is excellent and friendly. No complain on the staff. They were very good. They try to answer every of our question like what train/bus to take to certain area and estimated cost and time. When we requested for a safe deposit box, it was delivered to our room in less than 10 minutes. They greet you whenever you go in and out and take your luggage to your room when check-in, call taxi and tell the driver where to drop us. FYI, my husband speaks Mandarin. Of course, it's different slang from them but it helps.

The location of the hotel is just outside of West Lake (WL). But because China is so big, it took 55mins by bus to reach WL. However, the bus stop is just opposite the hotel and you do not need to wait for more than 5 min for a bus. If you were to travel to Suzhou, Shanghai or Shaoxing by bus, then you don't need to go to (HZ). There is a long distance bus station just less than 2km away from the hotel.

But, if you need to go to Xitang via Jiashan, then you need to go to Hangzhou long distance bus station to take the bus to Jiashan. From the hotel to the HZ bus station, it took 1 hour by bus, another 1 1/2 hours to reach Jiashan, and then another 20 minutes to reach Xitang. We stay one night in Xitang as it gets dark after 5.30pm.

To go to Shaoxing, take taxi from hotel to Xiaoshan bus station (approx. RMB6), then take bus to Shaoxing. From the Shaoxing long distance bus station took the local bus to Lun Xun Residence. The local bus station is just outside the long distance bus station. One important point to remember is that the last bus from Shaoxing to Xiaoshan is 4.40pm. However, you can take the bus from Shaoxing to HZ instead on the return trip. The last bus to HZ is 8pm. We make a mistake and took the 3.30pm bus back. Not enough time spend in Shaoxing. We were not aware of the 8pm bus to HZ. FYI, the bus from Shaoxing is like a local bus and it stops along the way to pick up passenger before getting out of Xiaoshan. So instead of 1 hour journey, we ended up with a 1 1/2 hour journey. The return trip to HZ is much better, It did not stop to pick up passenger and the bus is a normal long distance bus.

I saw that there is a bus going to Yiwu from the Xiaoshan bus station, too. In fact, there are quite a lot of buses leaving from that station. I did not go to Yiwu, so I cannot provide any details. I did not go because I'm not sure whether they do retail there or only wholesale.

At the end of our trip, we took the bus from Xiaoshan to Suzhou. We did not go to the HZ train station as it is quite far away. It is more convenient to take the bus and saves time.