Sheraton Zhoushan Hotel

Well, it has been a great semester. Those of you that will be leaving soon, I am sad to see you go, we had some good times. From Beijing to Xi'an it was a good run. Be sure to keep in contact through FaceBook, email, or whatever else and I wish you all a safe return. Maybe we will meet up again someday, but if not, it was good to know you, and have fun ...

... our way there we were complaining about Japanese food and how every single time we have trainee dinner we ALWAYS have Japanese food! Then when we finally found a place to eat, it looked pretty clean, good, european so we decided to have dinner there. When we opened the menu book - seafood, chiken teriyaki, udon noodles......AHHH!! JAPANESE FOOD AGAIN!! T_T

Dinner was still awesome though. There were heaps of LAH. and HEAPS of AIESEC clapping games ...

These are small vids that my flatmate Michael LOVES recording.

It's pretty cool how he does it though! Hes been travelling around China before he arrived in Shanghai, hes got 60G worth of pics + vids from his trips so far.

Here are two vids he recorded so far while living with me and Fini. One was recorded ...

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China is a funny place because just when you think you've seen the strangest thing you could possibly see, you see something even stranger! When we were walking through the food market we saw a HUGE boiling pot... with a whole ram in it. Eurgh! Then, on our way to the supermarket, there was a woman sitting on the side of the road with a pair of scissors, cutting the faces off live frogs. I thought I was going to be sick! It was horrific!
Well actually Amy wasn ...

The 17 hour train ride... OMG... don't even remind me - dirty, stinky, rough, uncomfortable, boring and oh sooooo looooong! Why oh why didn't we fly there?!

With 4 to a room... simply coz we booked the tickets too late, there was no privacy whatsoever! (we desperately were willing to pay a bit more for the private room with a private bathroom) Although... we weren't worst off... we were lucky enough to just have one extra lady and she wasn't so bad to tolerate. To be ...

... a bus and a ferry but the earliest available bus ticket was for the 11am bus, meaning I had 2 hours to kill around the Ningbo bus station. We finally left at 11am and the bus ride went on and on and on... Two hours after our Ningbo departure, I had no idea where I was until the driver, who saw my worried expression, assured me that we in fact will eventually go to Shenjiamen from where I would take the fast boat to Putuoshan. At around 3 or so, I arrived at Putuoshan ...

OK, it's not quite a slow boat to China, but when they'd asked me in the ticket office whether I wanted to take the fast boat or the slow overnight one to Shanghai, there wasn't much choice. The boat resembled a cross-Channel ferry, but rather than being fitted out with bars, shops, fast food dining and fruit machines, it was full of cabins and the restaurant was preparing fresh food. The boat pulled away from the quay and then ...

PutuoShan is ranked as one of the four most important holy mountains in China. There are a lot of holy mountains in China, so this is quite an important place on that count. It is also a very beautiful island to which I'd like to return. However, if I did come back: 1. I wouldn't arrive during the World Buddhist Forum when the place is teeming with VIP's. 2. I'd come just to wander around and explore the island on foot at leisure. 3. I'd arrive and stay midweek ...

Since I had seen the Shanghai sites on my last visit hadn't really planned to do much here. The main thing was to meet up with the local Taipan owners and go for a sail. The new owners are quite keen, but a lack of wind put a dampener on the sailing. Had some big nights in Shanghai. Lots of bars and clubs to chose from. Going with a couple of guys from the hostel made for a great time.

Weekend trip to beautiful Putuoshan Island nearish Shanghai together with Kathleen, Sophie and Lars. It's definitely worth going there if you're living in Shanghai and want to go away from the city hustle for a weekend. It's quiet and peaceful and you've got the beaches to yourself because the Chinese just go there for the temples. Mount Putuo is one of China's four Buddhist Sacred mountains and every Chinese ...