Around the lake

I decided to ride an electric cart around West Lake not only because it would have been a long walk, but the weather was turning cool and it looked like it might rain again. A round trip was only 40 yuan, quite reasonable I thought. We were going clockwise, so I rode on the right hand side to snap lakeside shots on the go. All these spots have names and histories, but I didn't pay much attention to the driver's spiel. So just enjoy the lakescape, like I did.

The driver turned on a jingle whenever he needed to warn pedestrians that we were coming through. This is just a few seconds after the previous shot so we were moving at a fair clip.

A splash of colour for an overcast day.

Very typical ornamental half-moon bridge in the middle.

A lakeside gazebo.

More photo opportunity locations.

Elaborate lake boats.

This is the road running on Su Causeway (苏提), named after the renowned poet Su Dongpo (蘇東坡), who ordered the dredging of the lake and piling up the mud into a causeway.

The high end restaurant Lo Wai Lo (楼外楼). I suspected as much from the shiny cars parked outside, but this blog entry confirmed it.

The boat has the same name so perhaps this is the lakeside dining annex?

This is Bai Ti (白堤), the causeway at the northern end of the lake.

Almost back at the starting point on Hubing. The trip took nearly an hour.

I had a passable ramen lunch at a nearby Ajisen, a restaurant chain serving Japanese cuisine in China. Before leaving West Lake, I saw this group of older citizens making music. The cart driver had explained that this was one of their pastimes.