Autumnal Evenings in Hangzhou

It’s technically autumn here in Hangzhou but it doesn’t feel like it. The temperature can still reach about 25 degrees in the daytime and I get hot walking around in jeans and a t-shirt. There are a few times when it does feel colder. I leave the house about an hour after the sun rises and you definitely need a jacket. The evenings are similar.

Today, Mitch and I had a really lazy day. I got all my work done this morning so this afternoon we had pizza and chilled out with movies. Safe to say we felt pretty unproductive so not long after 8pm we decided to take a stroll.


Shamefully, although living here for nearly two months now, there are so many places local to us which we’ve yet to explore. With this in mind, we took a stroll in a direction we hadn’t been before. We walked along a nearby canal and it was so peaceful, which I find to be a rarity in this city. It’s further away from main roads and as you walk along you can only hear traffic and construction in the distance. You hear the sound of bugs in the trees and your footsteps as you walk but that’s about it.

The odd person on a bicycle, or jogger would go past but apart from that, it was simply us and the canal. After stuffing our faces with pizza and spending the day cooped up in the flat, it was refreshing to feel the autumn breeze. Autumn is my favourite time of year so I should make the most of these lovely walks, and spending half an hour every now and again to explore some new parts of this big city.