May holidays... don't try this at home

So each year during the first week of May, China closes shop for a couple of days for Labor Day. I decided to venture out of Shanghai to check out the surrounding cities with a couple of friends and my sister. Since our friend has a nice car, we decided to take a road trip. I haven't done a road trip in a looonnnng time so I was really looking forward to it. However, I have to admit that I did hear from other people that this would be the worst time to go traveling around China because everyone has this time off and everyone wants to be outdoors. The weather has been extremely nice and people tend to come out of the woodworks. I didn't want to believe this so I wanted to see for myself. I also thought that because this year, May 1st fell on a Thursday and most companies only give you that day off whereas our company gave us the entire four days off, not many people would be out and about. That was definitely not the case. There were loads and loads and loads of people roaming around the streets in ALL the towns we stopped at. To make it worse, the weather was SO hot... I almost fainted. Our first stop was at this town called YiWu, a place where you're supposed to go and buy a bunch of "things" such as jewelry, pottery, etc. We got there and didn't realize that this place was for people who owned stores and wanted to buy in large quantity. I attempted to bargain with them but the sellers refused to talk to me. I really wanted to buy this nice tea holder set and they asked that I had to buy a minimum of 36 sets!!! Needless to say, we left this town in about two hours. Next stop was Shaoxing, the town famous for its production of yellow wine. We stayed there and had some really yummy food. It was off to Hangzhou, the most beautiful place in China that I have seen so far. From these photos, you can see that there are actual TREES and a gorgeous lake (called West Lake). We were able to take the boat around the lake, hike some small mountains and have some good food (there is always good food in China). I actually got sunburned that day! Shocking!
The trip was a good getaway but I will not do it again during May holidays. There are just sooooo many Chinese people and it drives me insane. I know most of you are laughing about it, but I tell ya, it is tough tough tough to get around here. 1.3 BILLION people and that is not even counting the number of expats that live here!
Until then... xo