Gloria Plaza Suzhou

... has about 6 million people living here.<br><br>We stopped for lunch, which wasn&#8217;t all that inspiring, and then checked in to the hotel for a bit of rest. Before we met back at 3pm, we took a walk down the street to a mall. Since it was Saturday, it was very busy. One of our group members commented that it was worse than Black Friday shopping, and he was right. It was incredibly busy! Everyone drove around their electric scooters ...

... 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 ...

... this school is to go to university in Canada or the States.<br><br>The facilities are pretty good. The campus is absolutely beautiful. The school has an observatory (never used), a 1000 seat auditorium (hardly used), a great gym (never used), a fantastic outdoor field with stadium and track (definately used), outdoor tennis court, volleyball courts, and about 15 outdoor basketball courts (definately used). Our school is currently renting facilities ...

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

There is this kid screaming in front of the hotel ... argh - wtf? Children ARE the best reflection of their parents and their life-long project :) Back to my critique :) Suzhou was the BBC/CNN version of China - the images you see in the news - grey, foggy skies were surrounding us when we were driving towards the city. In the morning we went to BS (steal lol) and met with mr. M. I can not say that I'm overly interested in STEAL - BUT the tour around the plant ...

... up the landscape. Suzhou is a great mix of old and new China. Beautiful old walled gardens, temples and pagodas are scattered throughout the city - there are some 400 gardens in all. And compared to Shanghai, it seems so incredibly clean! Trees line many of the streets, and there is far less of the offensive stink that pervades Shanghai. Suzhou, of course, is a leading tourist city in the country, and it seems like the city has readily embraced that ...

... br> <br>After the temple I headed down Dongbei Jie and found a Dumpling Eatery where I sat for some of the most delicious Joutsa (Dumplings) I've ever eaten. Man they were so good I had two trays full, one of fried and one of steamed. Easy to find this place as there is a guy out front wokking up his fried dumplings. Just the smell was enough for me to cross the road and ...

... rock formations, green plants and water that are like nature scenes in small scale (as they are supposed to). In the midst of the gardens, houses are located, usually with huge doors and windows. In these houses the owners used to live and work. If it wasn't for the expensive hotel and lack of company, I would have probably spent more time here.

... tell. It will definitely be interesting to see how the chinese government deals with opening up the country more, as surely this can only lead to conflicting views about the way forwards &amp; contrasting opinions about china's history which is currently whitewashed. So, Shanghai: said farewell to the Austrians &amp; took myself off to the Pujiang hotel. I loved the spookiness of this place (esp. on the 6th floor in the old servant's quarters where ...