Garden View Suzhou

... train is being built between Shanghai and Beijing. It will cover the 1100 miles in 4 hours and will be quite an impressive structure. New freeways were being built all over as well. <br><br>Joe explained that 30 years ago, nothing was there except rice paddies. The city and the country have really changed since they opened their doors to the rest of the world in the 1980s. <br><br>It&#8217;s nice to have free internet in our Holiday Inn hotel!

... station table in front of her shop. There are always fifteen to twenty people milling around buying their breakfast from her. She has a couple of small wooden tables with four chairs each set-up beside her cooking station for people to sit and eat. They are always full. Right next door is a small shop that sells fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as bottled water and juice. Two or three times a week I'll stop to ...

... passed the stage for maternal fussing. <br><br>But I have to say that we are quite spoiled in the UK. Most motorists stop when they see you standing at a pedestrian crossing, unlike Russia where you have to make the bold move onto the crossing before they stop. But things are done differently in China.<br><br>They have quite a cute system in Suzhou at the traffic lights. A countdown in red tells the impatient how many seconds until they ...

... It's about a 10 minute bike ride. When we get home, on non-clubs nights, we usually hop on the bus and head to the gym (about 20 minutes away). After working out we'll go to one of the many restaurants close to the gym, and then go to Starbucks for coffee and cake (Starbucks is right across the street from the gym). We then usually take a taxi home (about $2.50CAN). Going out to eat is so cheap here that we rarely cook at home, maybe once a week. <br><br><br>

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

... bike guy (which we had fallen in love with) to the Humble Administrator's Garden. The garden was pretty nice. Some of the flowers were in bloom and the architecture was interesting. But there were so many people there! Surprise, surprise! Outside the garden was a shopping street where I bought 8, yes 8!, embroidered silk painting things (5 fuwa and 3 others). After the garden we went to the Coiled Gate. It was ...

Yesterday morning, we piled into five cabs and headed over to the main Shanghai rail station for the bullet train to Suzhou. Suzhou is located about 40 minutes away from Shanghai by train. It is best known for its many canals and bridges and gardens, which have earned it its nickname of the "Venice of China". I like this city so much that if I had known better, I would have come here to fill those first couple of days before my tour began. The bullet train ...

... rooms and once I was happy they put me in a free mini-van and off we sped. <br> <br>We didn't have to go far as I chose one at the end of town do I could walk my way everywhere to the other end of town. <br> <br>After checking in and dropping my pack off I headed out into the heat of the day and decided to head to the huge pagoda I spotted as we turned off Renmin Lu which ...

... for a maritime prang... barges, ferries, you name it but I was out of luck today. Feeling alittle 'cabin fever' with my own company I decided to hit the town last night. To my good fortune as I was hoping into the lift to leave the hostel I met Lindsay, a new found friend from the UK. Lindsay is one of those extremely capable types - a Liz Hurley look alike, an Oxford graduate who's teaching English in the back blocks of China. In all reality I could imagine that she'd also look at ...