Hangzhou was never on my list of places to visit on this trip – we actually explored the city and its famous West Lake over ten years ago. The reason we returned was to explore another lake, 50km west of the city. 

It’s become famous for a wetland area where trees rise from the water and duckweed covers the surface, turning the lake bright green, and giving it the nickname ‘Matcha Lake’. 

To reach the lake, we caught three metros across the city, which took an hour and a half and cost a whopping £1. We wanted to arrive at the lake first thing in the morning to beat the crowds so we stayed nearby in what we thought would be a small town – but of course, we’re in China, so as we exited the metro station we were surrounded by skyscrapers. To cross the road they had a huge, circular over-pass, with escalators leading up. A two kilometre walk led us to a hotel with rock-hard mattresses, but a very sweet host who decided to squeeze into the lift with us at the last moment and nearly got crushed by the door. 

The following morning we set off for the metro again, and about 15 minutes later we arrived at an empty station. The walk to the wetland area was bizarrely quiet. It felt like there had been a zombie apocalypse and we were the only fools that didn’t know to stay inside and lock the doors. 

The lake was huge, and the air thick with smoggy pollution which restricted views across the water, but there was a hint of distant hills visible. The wetland area was a small patch on the edge of the lake, where wooden boardwalks led over the green water. 

There were only a couple of people in the park before us so it was delightfully tranquil, with calming music playing through speakers instead of the usual tour group leaders shouting through a megaphone. 

Most people recommend visiting the wetland during autumn – they say that the lake is greener, and you can also see the contrasting colours as the trees turn rusty orange. 

I was concerned that the lake wouldn’t be green in spring, and it would be a wasted journey, but it’s safe to say that the lake was indeed, bright green – I was relived. From what I can tell it’s green all year, but it will be much busier in autumn as that’s when everyone’s told to visit, so we were winning at life as far as I was concerned. 

The wetland wasn’t just unique because of its jaw dropping colour – it also had trees shooting out the water. It looked like the forest had been completely flooded, their roots submerged under an unknown amount of water. 

The trees were actually a gift from President Nixon, who visited the area in the 1970s, bringing along some mysterious seeds from the swampland in south eastern USA. The duckweed left neat lines on the tree trunks which gave an indication that the water levels were fairly low on our visit.

Ducks and geese resided in the lake, probably thinking they’d died and gone to heaven with the amount of edible goods surrounding them. It was lovely watching them swim, as the weeds all parted and neat black lines appeared behind the birds like an ink painting. Before our eyes the weeds would group together like magnets, and completely cover the surface again. 

There was a deer farm nearby which was a bit of a strange add-on, and we saw the man in charge whollop one of them with a rake when it didn’t do as he wished. Most of the deer were free roaming though, and eating fresh grass piled on the bed of a miniature truck. 

Most of the paths had handrails, but there was one section which was totally open and perfect for photography – and just as we got there the sun popped out, turning the lake a fluorescence green colour. It almost looked toxic, or radioactive, but it was completely natural and lovely shadows were cast across the water from all the trees. 

We ended up wandering along the tranquil paths for a couple of hours and managed to have the place mostly to ourselves. It started picking up as we left and the whole lakeside walk back to the metro station had come to life, with people heading to the wetland area or just enjoying a cycle ride around the lakeshore. 

Our plan was to collect our luggage from the hotel, and catch a metro back across the city to the Hangzhou railway station where we would continue to our next destination. 

My shoulders were twinging from carrying my backpack the past couple of days – it takes some time to get used to carrying 16kg on my back again after a year off. So, we decided to treat ourselves to a taxi, booking our first Didi, which is the Chinese version of Uber. 

On our previous trips to China, we didn’t have any sort of sim card, and we paid solely with cash – even though other international tourists love to claim that China is a cashless society – it’s not. 

But, this time around we’re trying to be a bit more modern, purchasing an e sim which gives us data and enables us to pay for anything by scanning the shops QR code – we can also to book taxis without having to speak Chinese to the driver. 

Even the smallest of venders, such as an elderly lady selling a few sweetcorn at a market will have a QR code, and while homelessness is very rare to see in China, they too will have a QR code for donations.  

The 2km journey was due to cost just 80p for the economy service, but as I looked down at my phone it said ‘premium – black BMW’.  I didn’t have time to cancel the ride, and before we knew it a polished BMW pulled up and a man in a suit stepped out to take our luggage. “Oh shit, I think I booked the wrong service!”  

I didn’t know my way around the app so I had no idea how much it would cost, but we figured at least it was a short journey to make my first mistake. 

On the plus side, we had a lovely arm rest in the middle with two bottles of water and a box of tissues at the back of the chair. We figured if it was going to cost us extra then we should make the most of it and take the water – but what if it was an extra charge? Just to be sure I translated to the driver ‘Is the water free?’ To which he nodded and we felt like ultimate cheap-skates, but that didn’t stop us putting them in our bag. 

When we got out the car, the price popped up on my phone ‘20 yuan’ roughly £2.20. We’ve always tried to take the cheapest option because the less we spend means the longer we can travel for – but we had a giggle about our mishap which cost less than a coffee and showed us a different level of travel that wealthier travellers enjoy. 

We soon made it back to the railway station where there were 56 platforms. It was like an airport – including plenty of security and ticket checks. 

Hangzhou was never on our agenda but the long journey to the wetland area was definitely worth the hassle.