Nov 26, 20215 min read

Easy Daytrip From Hangzhou: 'Thousand Island Lake' Qiandaohu

Updated: Jan 12, 2022

Self-travel china | Daytrip to Thousand Island Lake from Hangzhou | The Thousand Island Lake station-hotel shuttle bus | Getting to Qiandaohu National Forest Park Wharf | Qiandaohu National Forest Park Scenery

Date Travelled: October 6, 2o21

Travelled as: a Couple

SPONTANEOUS QIANDAO LAKE DAYTRIP

HOW ZERO EXPECTATIONS & NO PLANNING SOMETIMES WORKS OUT

People like me aren't interested in travel when it takes effort. Hence, when I do agree to travel it ends up being spontaneous day and weekend trips - the kind that don't require all too much thought.

On Tuesday, October 5th, we had planned a day of exploration at Zhexi Grand Canyon and night at a B&B nearby - but our super-cheap public transport-only route there failed us - the busses weren't running - a fatal blow to our half-assed attempt at easy travel.

But the great thing about half-assed travel is: it requires next-to-no investment~ yeah~~. The philosophy is "fail today, maybe try again tomorrow (if you feel like it)."

At maybe 8:00pm that night the girlfriend decided that tomorrow, we're travelling to Qiandao Lake instead. "Huh, sure。". I thought there was no chance of us getting train tickets, so I agreed thinking that we'll wake up late tomorrow to find my prediction true and I could just chill away another day of the National Day Holidays.

I even checked the tickets to confirm. Yep. All sold out. No early tickets to Qiandaohu. No worries.

BUT. Lo and behold. Next morning around 7:00, there were tickets...

Shortly afterwards we're on the metro(subway), then at the train station, then on to highspeed rail, then at Qiandaohu Station. Easy. We arrived around 9:45. We left around the same time that evening. But, of course, there is all that came in-between. I'll get to that below, but first, something I want to say:

If it's not clear yet, I had ZERO expectations for this trip. I was already content just lounging and doing non-work stuff back at home. However, this place turned out to be worthwhile in a way I hadn't expected. Beginning from the moment we hit those sparkling waters bound for the first island of the National Park, the entire experience had the effect of reminding me how some environments can bring you a feeling of (and i struggle to describe it accurately, but perhaps；) "joy just being." It's something like awe, or amazement, but it comes on much slower; it doesn't 'strike' you, but instead sits with soothes you.

Okay, I'm going to stop this poor attempt at describing my impression of the destination now. You may find something completely different there anyway.

One more thing before the visual content - the point of this post:

I'm not a photographer - this post isn't for pictures - you'll definitely find better pictures elsewhere. My purpose with this post is to show people a daytrip that worked out awesome despite zero planning. If you want to try this Hangzhou daytrip for yourself, pictures, videos and captions will make the trip even easier than it was for us! The majority of the visual content in here is intended to guide you between points in the trip - giving assistance to those of us that don't speak Chinese.

QIANDAO STATION & THE 'HOTEL SHUTTLE BUS'

GETTING TICKETS, GETTING THERE, GETTING BACK TO THE STATION LATER

1- Arriving Setting down at Qiandao* station. Overcast at the weather was, the open view of the surrounding landscape from the platform foreshadows what's to come.

Station platform Qiandaohu Island lake high speed rail station China. Mountain scenery visible. Overcast weather.

Follow the movement of the crowd and you'll find yourself walking the station corridor.

Inside Thousand Island Lake rail station - the concourse.

As you come to the end of the corridor, you'll see a big backlit sign like this. The sign itself is the timetable and stop list for the station - lake hotels Shuttle Bus.

This sign marks the entrance to the shuttle bus ticket counter and waiting hall.

Thousand Island Lake shuttle bus timetable in Chinese, marking entrance to ticket counter waiting room.

Inside, we bought shuttle bus tickets.

Here's how ticket purchase works inside.

1- To speed up the whole ticket-buying process, a woman with a QR code walks along the line. Scan and buy your ticket (the video below demonstrates how).

Note: I can't remember, but this may require that you have a CTrip account registered (which is easy to do). Scan now to check - you can purchase tickers any time.

Station ticket hall staff with ticket purchase QR code. Scan to pre-purchase.

Need translations? See the screenshots below.

Select your date.

Enter your phone number.

Pay.

2. Once you've paid and the queue pushes you up to the front, show your phone to the desk to get your ticket card. I don't know if they do or do not speak English, because I didn't need to say anything.

Here's what the card looks like. Note that on the upper left hand corner of the front side of the card there is a number: either "001" or "002". This indicates which waiting line and bus you will be riding.

The waiting line for bus "001" is on the right (or at least was on that particular day).

Thousand Island Lake shuttle bus ticket and ticket gate 1.

The hotel shuttle bus, as one would expect, has plenty of luggage space.

Thousand Island Lake shuttle bus to lakeside hotels. Luggage compartment.

As you get onto the bus there will be station staff waiting to collect your ticket and ask your stop.

If you can't respond in Chinese, you could have the hotel or place name written on your phone or open on a maps app.

On the bus. It takes the best part of an hour to the National Forest Park.

Riding the bus to Qiandaohu National Forest Park.

Here's the forest park on Baidu Maps. Scan the QR inside to open it on your phone, or jump to Baidu Maps in the app store if you don't yet have it installed.

3. This is what it's like stepping off the bus. The group hanging around under the big green sun umbrellas with QR lanyards are shuttle bus staff. These guys and gals are the one's to see about tickets to the station, which you'll want to buy before around 4:30 in the afternoon to guarantee a relatively cheap ride back.

Here's their table: Scan the QR for National Forest Park wharf -> Qiandao Station tickets.

Just a quick mention before we head inside: when we were waiting we heard there was also a bus heading directly back to Hangzhou departing from here. Turns out the bus runs all the way to Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, and the other way too. Here are some times:

THE QIANDAO LAKE NATIONAL FOREST PARK

ADMISSION TICKETS, BOATS, AND THE ISLANDS OF QIANDAO 'THOUSAND ISLAND' LAKE

Inside, the ticket window is easy enough to find.

If you scan the QR on the standing poster it takes you into the Alipay mini-app for Flyggy. Chinese ID holders can book directly here, but us passport holders need to go to the window for manual purchase. The prices listed are all for the same package, which covers National Park admission and the hop-on, hop-off speed boat transportation between 3 park islands. Adults are 280RMB for the day; children are 215RMB.

Ticket looks like this.

After you have your ticket there' a security check, followed by a ticket scan. The speed boats are at Wharf 3 (turn left out of the doors after scanning your ticket).

While you're waiting, show your ticket to get a speed boat passenger sticker. I put mine on my electricity card, but most people put it on their arm or chest.

ON THE QIANDAO LAKE ISLANDS

ENJOY QIANDAO LAKE

From here on, everything's pretty straight forward. Explore the islands from end-to-end. When one island finishes, there will be boats waiting to take you on the next. Take your time, and definitely try the fried fish on a stick!

I'll leave you with pictures from inside the park - leave any questions you may have in the comments and i'll get back to you.