It’s immense and beautiful – much more beautiful than Nanjing South station. According to the taxi driver who drove me there, it has only been open 2 months and is causing real traffic problems. I didn’t even know Hangzhou had got a new station. I am used to the old crumbling one with all its grime and dark corners and smelly toilets. Many a time I have run down the concourse trying to get an earlier train back to Nanjing.
This time I wouldn’t have minded getting a later one – I hung out a bit at Costa Coffee and wandered around the tourist shops.
These railway stations in China are getting more like airports all the time. But they are clean and airy and what they lack in character they gain in convenience and efficiency.
I just wish they had a few more metro lines in Hangzhou. Theere is only one and it doesn’t run anywhere near my place of work and taxis are usually non-existent during change-over time (5 – 7pm). It was a miracle I got one (while I stood at the bus stop waiting for the B2)
I suppose the railway station is designed to cope with the ever expanding middle-class demand for a dose of “Hangzhou West Lake” magic. What the Chinese don’t seem to get is… if you have a million people walking around and sailing on the precious West Lake, it’s no longer a calm and peaceful oasis they promote it to be.
The crux of the problem as always is that there are just too many people here.