Loma!

... that was Finnish and means "Holiday!". Yup, the National Holiday week (around Oct. 1st) has begun. I flew to Hangzhou as soon as I could (last lecture on Thursday morning, flight on the same night), got delayed for an hour and a half by the Shenzhou VII rocket launch and arrived in the early hours of Friday morning.

Hangzhou is a beautiful city in the eastern coast of China, few hours' drive from Shanghai. It was very humid when I got here, and a bit warmer than Beijing. I heard Nanjing is even hotter. That's my next destination. The most well-known place in Hangzhou would be the lake Xihu, or West Lake, a very scenic place right by the city. I went there today, but unfortunately my internet connection at the moment (at my dad's place) is a bit slow so the pics will be coming later.

I also visited Zhejiang University, which is the place my parents worked at during my early childhood here in Hangzhou. My good friend from Finland, Shilei (people tend to call him Chili), is also in there to study Mandarin for a semester, and with a stroke of luck we met each other today.

My tour will continue to Nanjing on Monday, and I'll return to Beijing the next weekend. Details unknown for now, but it looks like I'm going to have to take a very long road trip with my dad on my way back...