To say that our hosts treated us well while we were in Zhejiang is an understatement. It was pretty obvious from our first day in Hangzhou, when we saw the hotel that we were staying in. As a journalist, you pretty much get used to roughing it out – long train rides, red-eye flights, bed and breakfasts...

Although we didn't talk about it before, Sara and I were prepared to share a room. After all, getting the story was the most important thing, right? Imagine our surprise when we each were given these huge rooms, complete with a bathtub where we can soak the day's weariness away. Ah, heaven!

Our hosts were quite concerned with our safety, so we would always travel with a whole contingent of drivers, translators and coordinators. Every morning after breakfast, our little convoy would go from the hotel driveway to wherever we were heading. Then, every evening, after dinner, we would all be safely deposited back to the hotel.

We lasted a whole three days before the urge to rebel, I mean, explore overtook us.

On our third evening in Hangzhou, we decided we wanted to see the city (technically, the part within a ten-block radius of the hotel) without our local guides. It was the best way, we reasoned, to feel the pulse of the city, to absorb some local color, to know the Hangzhou that we were reporting on...

So off we went.

Our hotel was situated near the train station, so there were lots of shops and places to explore. Sara even tried to buy shoes, but no luck there. And we tried not to show our amazement when we went to a green grocer and were followed by this guy who had an open plastic bag ready for us to put our purchases in. We weren't even planning to get any fruit, but figured that since the guy had been patiently following us around for the better part of fifteen minutes, it was worth buying a couple of oranges and a mangosteen.

Sara's portrait (Image: Radio86)As I've so shamelessly pointed out in some of my travel articles, I have been blessed with absolutely no sense of direction. Sara was confident, though, that it would be easy to find our way back. Beside our hotel, you see, was another tall building with an interesting light feature. The whole facade was simply twinkling. If we could just keep that building in sight, we'll find our way home.

Of course, we got lost.

It wasn't so bad, though, because while we were trying to re-orient ourselves, we found we were in the middle of Hefang Street. It was a place we were scheduled to visit in a couple of days, so we thought a little advanced journalistic research wouldn't be such a bad idea anyway.

Visions of old (and commercial) Hangzhou

Hefang Street is a pedestrian street that has been rebuilt to create the feel of old Hangzhou. It's a very interesting and colorful place to hang around in and its many nooks and crannies will occupy you for hours. The pedestrian street is part of what's known as the Qinghefang Historical and Cultural Block. The block itself is divided into six themes – traditional Chinese medicine, tea culture, food culture, antiques, folk customs and cultural relics.

Within ten minutes of arriving in Hefang, Sara and I had managed to have our portraits drawn by one of the street artists there. They were charging 100 yuan, but we had successfully haggled the price down to 40 yuan. The only catch was, we ended up paying another 40 yuan for a plastic cover for our finished portraits so the charcoal wouldn't smudge. You'd think that would have been part of the price to begin with! It's an interesting experience, if you could bear the thought of sitting still while a crowd gathers around you.

Your very own seal, carved while you wait (Image: Radio86)Earlier in the day, we had visited the Hangzhou Seal Society. We had wanted to get our own chop or seal done there, but the price was just too prohibitive. Luckily, there were a number of seal engravers in Hefang who were just too happy to make them for us at a fraction of the price.

There were some amazing artists working on Hefang Street. There was a man who was painting Beijing opera masks and his attention to detail was just extraordinary. It was fascinating to watch while he turned a blank papier-mâché mask into a work of art.

Shop after shop after shop...

Of course, since we were in Hangzhou, there were the requisite tea houses and silk stores. Then, there were the not-so-requisite chopsticks store (two branches of the same store, actually on either end of such a short street), comb store (made from buffalo horn and bamboo), and matchbox store (yes, the store sold only matches). There were also some stores that are really quite hard to describe, like the one we bought plastic cellphone accessories for our colleagues from (they had it in all shapes and sizes -- chicken feet, noodle bowls, spring rolls, pineapples, fish heads, half a banana, you name it). It was just so kitsch and tacky we knew we had to get them as souvenirs.

When we officially went to Hefang two days later, we were surprised at how much Sara and I had left unexplored. So much for thorough journalistic research. We did learn that there were a lot of Time Honored Brands, or companies that have been in existence for over a century, on Hefang Street. We also enjoyed a cup of medicinal tea that one of the traditional Chinese medicine pharmacies offers free to anyone who wants it.

The other good thing about having a video crew along was seeing how various vendors were more than willing to ham it up for the camera. The staff at the teahouse, for example, treated us to a kung fu tea show, balancing the long-spouted tea pot this way and that. At another shop, a young man started flipping and catching freshly-made sesame seed cookies to our delight.

A moving picture show on Hefang Street. (Image: Radio86)One thing I do regret is not having tasted the street food there. There's an alley off Hefang Street that's packed full of food vendors. Sara and I missed it on our first visit and our half-hearted attempts to get our hosts to let us sample Hangzhou's street food were very politely ignored.

If you ever find yourself in Hangzhou, don't miss Hefang Street. Shops are open until 10 pm, so there's no rush. Oh, and if you see a man on some street corner promising a moving picture show if you just peeped into a box, go for it! Sara and I didn't understand a word he was saying, but we enjoyed the performance no end.

Watch a video about Hefang Street.