Chateau Regency Hotel Service A Suzhou

... br><br>So far, our trip in the south has far exceeded our expectations in everything but the food. The lunch and dinner were both less appetizing than the food in Beijing. Perhaps it&#8217;s because it was the fourth day in a row with just Chinese food. XO, the downtown GR Chinese restaurant will be off the rotation for a while when we get home!<br><br>A couple of random Suzhou notes:<br><br><br> Chinese people don&#8217;t generally care ...

... outside of his small one room home having a morning stretch or brushing his teeth. His home is no larger than a small single-car garage and is situated on the edge of the road. We peer through the window of his home as we pedal by. Inside is a sleeping cot, a small table, a hot plate, and some shelving on the wall lined with canned food. I wonder about the stories this old man must have, and how, if at all, his ...

... any Italian city.<br><br>Suzhou is also celebrated for its gardens. These date back centuries and are works of art. We visit the Joyous Garden..The designer seems to have been to the same garden school as John and me. There is lots of stone and limited, easily maintained plant areas! Admittedly the rock displays are rather grander than our sandstone boulders and the water features are far more extensive than the one John is planning ...

... University graduates, many of them with Masters degrees. A couple of Assistants that have worked in my classes so far have a Masters degree in Chemistry, and the other in English studies. <br><br>Our day begins at 7:30am. We are on a semester system. Each day has 3 blocks. Two in the morning and one in the afternoon. This semester I am teaching 2 blocks of Info Tech 11 and one block of Leadership that Lois and I team teach. And, I have my prep this ...

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

... emanent de leur bouche.<br><br>Bizarrement, Josee et moi avions le meme stupide reflexe de communiquer avec eux en espagnol. Notre interlocution avec eux se resumait alors en un espece de charabia de francais, anglais, espagnol et de mandarin maladroitement prononce.<br><br>Finalement, on s'est resigne a se presenter a un autre hotel designe dans le Lonely Planet. On a pu s'y rendre sans ...

... of Suzhou, a towering pagoda that is actually leaning over slightly. Sort of like the Leaning Tower of Pisa but not quite as pronounced as that... and in saying that, we've seen quite a few large pagodas throughout China that are tilting over slightly. So yet another brief visit to another beautiful Chinese city that really deserved a lot more time but it's yet another reason why we'll certainly have to return to China again someday.

... more cars, electricity and other modern conveniences, it has also created some of the most polluted cities in the world.) The Humble Administrator's Garden is breathtaking. It makes me think of a famous Chinese saying: "In heaven there is paradise, on earth Suzhou and Hangzhou." Suzhou's largest garden is really a park as it takes hours to stroll through. Photos and video do not do it justice. One area of the garden features a long ...

... I don't think they'd ever seen anything like it. It didn't even matter that I didn't know how to lead and we missed a few steps. All in good fun, right? After that, all the foreign teachers here led the audience in the Macarena - a song that knows no cultural bounds. The student performances were the best part of the night. How the teachers were able to get the cute little kindergarteners to remember their routine, I don't want to know. But everyone ...

We boarded our Thai airways flight to Shanghai, it was less than half way full... ie AN ENTIRE ROW TO MYSELF!!! I slept from the time we boarded at 145 until about 6 when they woke us up with toasty hot towels, orchid corsages and delicious breakfast. We landed at about 7am, picked up our bagage, cleared customs and immigration, changed some money, and figured out bus schedules. We made our way to bus 3, which took ...