I wanted to go see Mt. Putuo, which is also an island out on the ocean. There were at least 3 buses and a ferry involved, so I tried to get started early in the day. Without seeing anything in Hangzhou, I took a bus to the East Bus Station of the city. Then I took a bus to the city of Ningbo. Ningbo is a smaller city in China that no one has really heard of. It only has 5.6 million people in it.
Then I had to make it to the passenger ferry terminal in Ningbo. I tried to find a bus, but no luck. Then someone tried to help, but he actually wasn’t helping, he wanted me to get on the back of his motorcycle. After a while I talked him down from 30 Yuan to 15 Yuan. The problem was he didn’t know exactly where the terminal was. He got me close but then dropped me off and told me to find the place on my own! He also asked for 20 Yuan after all that, which I gave him because I didn’t feel like getting in a fist fight today. It took me nearly a hour of walking around to find the terminal.
Finally I paid for a ferry ticket, which included a bus ride to another city before the ferry. When I got to Putuoshan, it was nearly 8 hours since I left the hostel in the morning. I was figuring on 5 hours. The entrance fee ($19) to the island went up a lot over what my guidebook said, just like the ferry price ($9.50), and the bus price ($7.50) . On top of that there is no hostel on the island, so this is one expensive part of the trip. At the arrival terminal, I was able to book a hotel room. I got the cheapest room on the island ($22). By the time I checked into my hotel, it was getting dark.
I walked around a little after dark and had some dinner. Another funny thing, the price of dinner was a little higher than the items I picked out on the menu for some reason.