The First Day of Our Road Trip: From Hangzhou Xiaoshan to Wuzhen
Our self-driving journey officially began from Hangzhou Xiaoshan, with the first destination being Wuzhen. I had visited Wuzhen before, but it wasn’t quite the same Wuzhen it is today. Back then, development was still incomplete, and I had only explored one section of the town. The largest area was still under construction, and I never got the chance to return later.
This time, we debated whether or not to revisit Wuzhen, since there are several similar ancient towns in the area. One of the deciding factors was that Wuzhen fit more smoothly into our travel route.
The drive from Hangzhou to Wuzhen isn’t very far—just a bit over an hour. There's no need to rush, so we drove at a safe pace. We set off early that morning, and fortunately, there was no traffic. However, one stretch of the expressway had many large trucks, so we made sure to keep a safe distance. One thing to remember when driving in mainland China: don’t be too polite!
I had planned to grab a Starbucks, but if I remember correctly, it was either closed or we had already had our coffee earlier and decided to skip it. These days, service areas along the highway are much better than they used to be. In the past, they felt disorganized and weren’t always clean. You definitely wouldn’t want to stay long. Now, they’re much more comfortable and well-equipped.
A Short Stop at Deqing Service Area
It was my first time stopping at the Deqing Service Area, and honestly, it was just a quick restroom break. We spotted it along the way and decided to pull over. Since we arrived quite early, most of the shops inside hadn’t opened yet, and there wasn’t much to see or do.
That said, the space was pretty large, and the overall environment was quite new and clean. However, there was no one at the information desk when I wanted to ask something—completely empty!
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