Castle Hotel Suzhou

... 8220;egg roll” for everyone to try. It was a light, sweet, crispy shell that was rolled like a canola, just without the filling. Denise tried it and found it rather appetizing. The group made our way back to the boat to see the rest of the canal tour at night with the lights on. It was amazing! Denise was able to get some wonderful pictures, be sure to check them out below. Everyone agreed it was even better than our time at Tiger ...

... to buy. As we pedal along we see the local seamstress sitting at a table in front of her shop working away on her latest project. Next to her shop is the local water-well. Several people are gathered around drawing water for their gardens, or scrubbing their clothes in large pails of soapy water. A little farther along we are careful to dodge the chickens running across our path as we pass an old man who is often ...

... right by your shoulder!<br><br>Suzhou is sometimes called the Venice of the East apparently. Certainly the City centre is surrounded by the Grand Canal which goes all the way to Beijing, And there are plenty smaller canals criss-crossing the city but many of them peter out as they have been filled in or built over during a wave of Communist reconstruction. I believe moves are afoot to resurrect them. But the number of scooters certainly ...

... the Chinese school, so to use the gym and observatory and auditorium the owner of the school has to pay for it, which he's not willing to do. The owner is building a new state of the art school which is supposed to be ready in about 18 months. <br><br>The students day begins at 7am when they meet in their classrooms for some English instruction with their Chinese Teacher Assistants. Each classroom has a Chinese Teacher Assistant. These Assistants are ...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!! I'm dressing up *s * pir*te / cr*cked out gypsy loh*n, it's pretty legend*ry. Tonight were going to Pulp Fiction, who *re ridiculously nice *nd giving free beer to everyone who is dressed up. It should get f*irly rowdy. App*rently none of the chinese dress up so it's b*sic*lly drunk exp*ts flooding b*r street cre*ting *ll sorts of shen*n****ns. <br>H*ve *n *wesome h*lloween!!! <br>-B

... le shifu (chauffeur), je me suis rapidement rendu compte que malgre tout les efforts que j'avais pu consacrer pour apprendre le mandarin, je demeurais totalement inapte a communiquer dans cette langue batarde et que les 100 mots de vocabulaire que je pouvais avoir ne suffiraient pas pour transmettre une quelconque idee, aussi simple soit-elle, ou pour comprendre les etranges bruits que les ...

... It's essentially another much larger garden that the one we saw on our first day. I'd probably refer to it as a garden complex. It's probably 1 or 2 kilometres wide and long and again there are endless paths leading to endless traditional Chinese buildings and ponds and small ornate gardens with manicured trees and flower beds. At the top of Tiger Hill in the centre of the garden is what I'm pretty sure it's fair to say is the ...

... remember which one I actually went in 10 years ago. The North Pagoda is perhaps the most famous symbol of Suzhou as it sits in the heart of the city. This nine-story structure is a Buddhist temple that dates back 1,500 years. The Pagoda, one of the tallest in the southern half of China, was built much later. We climb up the pagoda and receive some nice views of the city. But smog prevents us from seeing very far. (As China produces more ...

Today my school celebrated Teacher's Day. It's a national holiday in China because teachers are supposed to be venerated. The celebration at SIFLS consisted of a free dinner for the teachers and a performance put on mostly by students as well as a few teachers. I was one of the few "lucky" teachers that got to perform. The other teacher from the states represented for the Americas and performed a short salsa number. It went over pretty well with our ...

... and clothing. At 4 we were due to embark on yet another train journey, this one a gargantuan 27 hour monster. Shanghai had lived up to its billing as the expansive powerhouse capital of the Chinese economic miracle; bright lights, well dressed pedestrians, thousands of shops and mcdonalds, and an intimidatingly emphatic financial district; the city warranted a far longer sodjournment but Yangshuo and the countryside highlands were the imminent stop of our whirlwind tour of the Far East.