Why We Chose THIS City To Live In 🇨🇳

the city of Hangzhou has a history of more than 2200 hundred years it's one of the oldest cities in China and there is an old saying it's called Shang-you-tian-tang, xia-you-su-hang which literally means above there is heaven and below there are suzhou and hangzhou hi everyone welcome back to the channel right now i am back in Hangzhou back home

and we just finished our central Asia trip after crossing into China we went to Kashgar and shipped our motorbike back home so we're going to take a few weeks rest in hangzhou before we continue the silk road travel so we haven't been back home for almost five months now

i really enjoy it to be back home and it has been over i think over 10 months since we moved to hangzhou and today i actually want to make a video about hangzhou and show you the city that we live in i really like hangzhou it's one of my most favorite cities in China and today we're going to take a scooter

electric scooter that we bought a few months ago and now it's time for the the driver Hello hello Flo is learning Chinese Where are we going? Lets go out drive around with the motorbike

ok let's go let's go we live in Shangcheng district it's the old city district in Hangzhou very close to the west lake and today we're going to do a round trip we start from our community

and then we ride towards the west lake and then to the tea garden this is my most favorite part going through the city it's kind of an eight where you go down and then first up and some scooters there are so many scooters and it's really funny to race them look hahaha that's a museum

i like hangzhou because it's very clean and very organized and in the city center there is no motorbike because it's not allowed but instead everyone has an electric scooter it's also very quiet here because most of the cars are also electric so there isn't so much engine sound so we're waiting for the red light

so this is a historical historical city and we're going to quickly park the scooter and i'm going to show you this area what i like about hangzhou is that it's very organized it's very clean and very green in the city center there are so many big trees and soon we will reach the bell tower that building is called bell tower

so that i think supposed to be one of the gates of the old city but now hangzhou has got much bigger it's a city with over 12 million people the city of Hangzhou has a history of more than 2200 hundred years it's one of the oldest cities in China and there is an old saying it's called Shang-you-tian-tang, xia-you-su-hang which literally means above there is heaven

and below there are suzhou and hangzhou so hangzhou for a very very long time has been a center one of the centers of Chinese civilization the district that we're walking in is called Hefang Jie Historical district

so it's a historical area but now adapted into a very popular touristy place but also very beautifully designed shopping area if you like hiking then hangzhou is a perfect place for you even in the city center right here you can see a lot of those small alleys leading up so that's actually a hiking trail

and if you go up you can even take a walk all the way to the tea gardens and hike for like five six or even ten kilometers that's how the city looks like this area looks like in the past and now it's so beautifully renovated there are many old industries that are preserved on the street for example there are a lot of shop

that sell silk and also there are also many time-honored brand for example this Zhong de Tang is a Chinese medical hospital this is an old pharmacy and you can still see a doctor here and also get the Chinese medicine and you can also get other treatments such as acupuncture or cupping

Hefangjie is also a gourmet street a gourmet street where you can buy lots of different traditional snacks this shop has a lot of different pastries and they're all very beautifully designed I d like one Longjing tea flavor and this one

Mandarin pastry an mandarin pastry and one pomegranate pastry three in total thank you i got three different pieces there very nicely made this is longjing tea pastry so with longjing tea filling the pastry this is mandarin Mandarin pastry looks like an orange looks like an orange and this is pomegranate pastry pomegranate

we actually want to have our brunch here it's called Pan ChengfangJianjiao it's a dumping place but right now there is a such a long queue that we just decided to have our brunch somewhere else but you can try it it sells dumplings at a very reasonable price

we got our beef rice noodle the rice noodles it took quite a while and we're now sitting outside now it's November and it's not too hot not too cold outside it's quite comfortable the noodle the soup is really good do you like it? yes very delicious this is the pastry that we had this one is matcha flavor and it's not that sweet and this one

looks like a pomegranate it's slightly salty and sweet tastes a little bit like the British shortbread but there is a salty egg salted egg in the middle there are some nuts in it my favorite is the orange one 五仁馅的 and your least favorite this one matcha （not sweet enough）

i think my favorite is this one with a salted egg Salted egg filling that's the xiaolong bao steamer yes thats the steamer for baozi also Before continuing the trip in Hangzhou I have a small announcement So we have been constructing our website Called www.littlechineseeverywhere.com And now it's ready

So there is a destination page Where you can find an interactive map Shows all the places that we've been to And if you click on the place You'll find the video about that place And also some useful travel info Plus, we also have a blog page In which we share all the useful

And practical travel information in China And we hope it will help you To plan your china trip better And finally, we also prepare a bit of merch Including 2 T-shirts and 1 sleeping mask If you want to support our work Don't forget to check it on site So all right, let's get back to Hangzhou

now we are in a community market called Damanong and i want to show you what normally you can buy in the market what's on the table for example those are the sausage dried fish this is hangzhou dried duck here it is called Damanong

that's quite convenient when i'm old i want something like this as well it's awesome hahaha that's convenient life in Hangzhou is very convenient so at home we do order a lot of delivery but in a market local market you can also buy a lot of fresh produce this one is 10 RMB Which one? One box?

Yes one box 10 RMB This one is 5 RMB Ok I ll take a small one okay kaki is a seasonal fruit in autumn and the size is quite small and when it got fully ready it's so soft Are they the same taste? No not the same, try it That's a tofu and shepherd's purse do you have one with meat?

Yes beef and pork this one is with pork, it's very good you can give me a mix that's the most traditional food in China the spring roll and they also make the spring roll themselves and sometimes you can see them making the spring roll skin

there is a dough they hold the dough and the dough is very stretchy so that is rice wine jiuniao it's fermented rice Baobao whats that? that is the山药 a very typical food on our table so it's basically a root of a plant you can steam it you can stir fry it it's very healthy

it's also now the season for the fresh water crab and those are Chinese Soft-shelled Turtle those are the water eels and here tianji literally translated it's a farm chicken but it turned out to be the frog Whats this?

do you know what it is i think it is deep fried dried pork skin deep fried pork skin that is pork skin yes really yes looks like potato chips Whats this thing over there?

Maybe Radish? Its not radish? no its not It's bamboo sprouts yeah it's fresh bamboo sprouts the winter sprouts okay hello hello How to eat it? the best way to cook the winter sprout is to make a chicken soup

so you cook you cut the sprout into slices and then slow cook it with chicken it's one of my favorite dish in winter i've vastly traveled to through China already but there are still things that i have never eaten before and that you can always find on Chinese markets so when you come to China definitely visit one of the local markets it's amazing

it's true the variety of the food in a local market is quite amazing and even as a Chinese i think i only tried like half of the food material hey boss Can i get a small jar of walnuts? Yes, we have jars.

what flavor do you want?

Cream, salt and pepper, and plain Can I try one? Sure, what flavor do you want?

I want the salt and pepper one that‘s Chinese hickory mountain walnut is a very typical food produced in hangzhou it's a small walnut In Germany Are there things like this? Not really In Germany we have bigger ones It's bigger we only want one jar The price won't be the same The price will be We don't have this type. And those? Yes, that one That is not Chinese hickory That's regular walnut

What is that? This is wild Chinese hickory Chinese hickory That is big walnut yes There is only that in Europe Big walnut. Yes That's cheap 20 yuan per bag, produced in Xinjiang Oh yes I know Xinjiang So there are such walnuts in Germany Yes, big walnuts Not the small ones This for sure not

You can speak mandarin Have you studied in China? Yes 6 years ago Ok, thanks Lao-ban!

Come back again Sure hahaha this is really the specialty of Zhejiang province or river-south region Chinese hickory and if you come to visit hangzhou remember to try this small walnut but i don't know how to describe the taste but it's really good

after hefangjie and the gourmet street our next stop is to ride towards the west lake officially the speed limit is only 25 but all the scooters go faster it just shows 25 and if i switch to sports mode it even goes faster i think eventually it goes 50 or 60

i just hope the traffic policeman don't get us because in hangzhou you have to wear a helmet if you want to ride the electric scooter and it's not allowed to have two adults on one bike the one who's sitting behind needs to be under twelve or maybe under eighteen i'm not so sure

but if the policeman catch us i'll tell him that i am only ten years old here we are by the west lake it's a big lake in the middle of the city and in my opinion it's the soul of hangzhou and all year round tons of tourists from different parts of China come here so it's always quite busy by the lake

you can take a boat ride you can see the pavilions and sometimes if you take the boat ride it will take you to for example to the island in the middle of the lake and also to go down under the bridge and you will see lots of small pavilions and pagodas the landscape design here

truly reflects the traditional Chinese aesthetic hangzhou is a very green city so we are very close to actually where we live we can do it all by e scooter we maybe drove i don't know it's five kilometers from where we live and it's probably even the greenest city in China if you come to this part of hangzhou you can hardly tell that it's a big city

with over twelve million people this is like a forest that's a tea garden that produces the most famous tea longjing those are the tea trees and now it's flowering but now it's not the time for tea production and if you come in April for example you will see people picking tea leaves

and also making tea in a village the whole area smells like fresh green tea it's really really nice and this is the production area for one of China's most famous green tea called longjing tea but this region is quite famous because historically the tea produced here is favored

by China's emperor qianlong huangdi there are i don't know how many but maybe five six or even ten villages so all those villages live on tea farming the fresh authentic longjing tea produced in this region is fairly expensive i remember last time we had two cups of tea and we paid 200 RMB for that if you want to buy green tea

i recommend you not to buy it here because i find it very overpriced you pay around maybe i think two hundred two hundred USD for one kilo but honestly i think you can buy high quality green tea in many other places in China at a much lower price Thank you

wow and this is actually a dirty i have never had i've never seen that anywhere else in Europe i think it's some kind of cream and then they pour coffee over it it's a little bit sweet but very delicious actually i really like it because it goes from bitter to sweet Oh yes

the first sip is Espresso So you'll learn to enjoy the process The first sip is warm Yes. Right

The first sip if you drink fast, is pure expresso but from the 2nd sip It blends with the milk And the 3rd sip turns sweeter And it gets even sweeter after that So you can't shake it If you shake it, it turns into a milk coffee Because the milk is thick And it has a thick taste So the espresso stays on the top It won't go down Can you see that? yes

It turns into a milk coffee if fully blended A plain coffee latte So it goes from bitter to sweet From hot to icy The cup was frozen at minus 18 degrees It's icy, minus 18 degrees yes Enjoy that process And then, it's just like our life yes Your mandarin is great Yeah, I understand And our life is the same It goes from bitter to sweet It's like our life From bitter to sweet

very very right Why we end it with a glass of water That is to say, our life is at the end, as plain as water Life is as plain and bland as water By the end A cup of water is the most plain In Chinese, it is the art of omission To keep it plain hahaha

So drink fast And then sip the water slowly That is to say Finish in 5 sips Take a sip Every sip is different I love it There is no such thing in europe But maybe they'll sell this soon in Europe It's a great idea

so that's not the coffee that we're drinking it's the philosophy of life you‘ll have to Drink fast fast yeah so now you've heard it and that's the story of dirty and i really think it's a concept that would work anywhere else in the world as well i really like it to be honest a Porsche bmw haha feels like home hahaha

we are now crossing qiantangjiang the big river in hangzhou together with a lot of other scooter rider and biker we have reached the ending point of our today's scooter ride we're in a place called urban balcony which is a nice park near the river qiantang and it's also next to the CBD

where you can find all those high rises home to the HQs of the big high tech companies so we hope you enjoy hangzhou as much as we do thanks for watching and bye bye