Hangzhou has a long and interesting
history. In 1290, when Marco Polo visited the city, he was so overwhelmed by the beauty of the
Xi Hu, or West Lake, that he transcribed, and thus popularized, a famous Chinese saying:
Shang you tiantang, xia you Suhang. This roughly means "in heaven there is paradise, on earth there is
Su[zhou] and Hang[zhou]".
Chinese today like to call Hangzhou "Paradise on Earth". It's a lofty nickname, but a visit to Hangzhou does provide a lovely, if not peaceful, alternative to the hustle and bustle of Shanghai and other big belching Chinese cities. See for yourself in this West Lake Photo Gallery.
Photo: West Lake view with boats and Lei Feng Pagoda in background (c) 2006 Sara Naumann licensed to About.com, Inc.
When one lives in China, little things like
travel visas, those all-important entire-page-taker stickers issued by the Chinese government for those wonderful friends and family members coming to visit us, don’t take up much space in our thoughts. We are focused on lists of items the visitor is bringing us, things like antiperspirant and vitamins – things we still have trouble buying in China. Then, we focus on how to entertain the visitor,
what sights to see and
where to eat.
If our visitors have been here several times, then we start to look for other fun places in China to go aside from whatever city in which we reside. You can only see the Great Wall or the Bund so many times. Many of us take our visitors to Hong Kong. It provides a completely different view of China – ultra-modern and sleek, still steeped in history with a Cantonese flair, oh, and the shopping, really it’s just an excuse for us main-landers to pick up anything said-visitor didn’t bring along for us.
And herein lies the problem, our visitor MUST have a re-entry visa to China if he is not ending his trip there. If the plan is to come back to the mainland, the one-time entry visa won’t be enough. Friends of mine recently learned this the hard way. After a lovely long weekend in Shenzhen (mainland China), they crossed the border with Dad in tow to take everyone to Hong Kong Disneyland for the day. Crossing back into Shenzhen, Dad wasn’t allowed back in because he didn’t have a re-entry visa!
All’s well that ends well, after a few extra days in Hong Kong, Dad obtained a rush-re-entry visa to China and he’s back in Shanghai for a few more weeks with the family. But don’t let this happen to you. If you’re planning a trip to Hong Kong during your visit to China, make sure you either have a re-entry visa or you start or end your trip in Hong Kong!
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