Suzhou Gusu Hotel

... The sites, sounds, and smells were a real eye opener. Children ran up to us to practice their English and have their picture taken. Other Chinese tourists and locals enjoyed waving to us and Denise and I bought Oreos, Lays potato chips, and a Dove chocolate bar for about $2.50 at the local market. <br><br>Joe had us climb up one of the old bridges to take pictures as the lights came on along the canal. When we got back to him, he had an ...

Our school day begins early at 7:30am. It takes us about 15 minutes to ride to school. The last kilometer of our morning bike commute takes us down a wonderful neighborhood street we have come to know as Sesame Street. Each morning and afternoon, as we ride to and from school, we watch in wonder as the people of the neighborhood go about their everyday lives on the street. Sesame Street is a narrow 2-lane street. On ...

... 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 ...

... go back to their rooms to sleep(you can see a lot of clothing hanging outside the dorm room windows in the pictures below. That's because there are only washing machines in China, no dryers. So even Lois and I have to hang up all of our clothes after we wash them. Should be interesting this winter). Chinese people love to sleep, and their super good at it. They sleep anywhere and everywhere they can. Whenever we ride the bus at least every third person ...

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

... lupus) In the afternoon Titan took me, Antonia, Nick, Jane, Kat and Jono for dinner - and that was by FAR the BEST food I had in China!!! :) And later on ... it was THE night! :) For those on Facebook - check out the china tour afterhours album :) That was Suzhou! :) lol I would like to write more ... about my different "China experience" but to be completely honest - I can't - there is not much to write about. WHY? Because we are running like crazy, from ...

... which consists of a sampling of various Chinese performing arts (dancing, singing, Peking opera, etc). I was wiped out after the long day (I'd been up since 5:30am) but the other folks went out to a bar... I will have to save tales of that for another entry. ;) This morning we went to the "Number One Silk Production Factory" and learned about silkmaking. It should be no surprise that it is incredibly labor-intensive, or that only a small amount of silk ...

... To keep them happy there is a new 'Ancient Village' full of stores offering things you need to buy but will never look at or use again. This area is right near the Suzhou Museum and the 'Humble Administrators Gardens'. I was going to have a look at these gardens as they are supposed to be near the top of the list of 'The Gardens to see' here but when I found they had Peak ...

... it. Of course all the guys in my group jumped to get it. Approximately 3 hour bus ride to Suzhou. Our driver got lost again haha. We then went to temples and then more temples. Then we ate dinner and then finally checked into our hotel. I think we explored the streets that night.

Salut a Tous, Eh bien voila, fin d'un long periple de deja pres de 22 000km. Je me pose a Shangai avec un ineffable plaisir, le temps de finir de pondre mes probables futurs articles, et j'enquille sur un mois de mission Michelin avant le retour sur Paris, programme pour fin avril, toujours via Ulaan Bator (tu vois Marco, il fallait bien que ca arrive), Irkutsk, le lac Baikal, Petropavlosk, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Moscou, Prague... Enfin tout ca c'est s'il me reste du temps et de l ...