A friend wanted to have dinner by the river. After some deliberation, we identified a place called Blue Mountain Café (Lanshan Café) that suited our purpose. Below are the photos we took after dinner, from both sides of the river.
River Photos from Binjiang District
Okay so we walked beside the river a little before dinner and took photos of this sculpture, which is weird because the subject matter is Chinese (that’s a Chinese-style snaky dragon, albeit hard to see clearly) but the style overall is European… The idea of putting up a bronze statue on a stone pillar in a park somehow doesn’t seem Chinese to me. I feel like, traditionally, Chinese bronze statues are in pairs at doorways of important buildings, not positioned alone up high in parks.
I don’t have a photo of the cafe where we ate. Here are night photos of the Qiantang River, facing north(west) from the south(east) shore.
The LEDs on the buildings, during certain hours, display an animated light show.The big orange stick near the boat is one of the two supports of Xixing Bridge.The lights on the buildings and the boat change colors.
Off to the left, the lights are a bit more staid.A panorama that squishes the whole view together, including the pedestrian walkway along the river.Both supports of Xixing Bridge.Another bridge! This one is Fuxing Bridge. It’s two levels, used by both cars and trains. Also, on the left there’s a dock for those flashy boats.We considered trying to get on one of those boats, and walked over to the dock. (Turns out you need to reserve a day in advance.)
Photos from City Balcony
We drove to the opposite side of the river to see a different view. These are the stairs up to the City Balcony on the north(west) shore of the river.That building in the middle, I call the Tuning Fork. The colorful thing to the right is the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Expo Center.Xixi Bridge from a different angle.Hangzhou Grand Theater. They were having a rock concert on a stage in a pit in front of this place as we walked by, and spotlights were shooting up into the air from down there. Good times!
