Suzhou Taihulake Mandarin Hotel

... is this the Venice of the East, but it also has the Leaning Tower of China. Of course, both the city and the tower predate their Italian counterparts by a few hundred years or more. <br><br>We took it slow through the complex, and the pace was a welcome change from the running we did in Beijing. It was a peaceful area, and all of the different tourists seemed happy to be there. A few in our group were pulled into pictures with the ...

... street garbage collection hut. Just past the hut a group of children wait for the bus to pick them for school. They begin jumping and waving as we approach, shouting 'Hello', or &#8216;Good Morning'. We slow down as we try to get through the crowd gathered in front of the local Tim Hortons. It's not a real Tim Hortons, but a vendor who has baked a variety of breads, pastries, and cakes. She sells them from her ...

... br><br>Another day takes us to Panmen, a beautiful old scenic area by the Grand Canal which has the only land and water gate in China, once controlling access to the city by either route. I climb up inside the pagoda and tick another box. <br><br>Are we getting better at dodging the bikes? Not sure but we have time to practise before we hit Vietnam where crossing the road, from what I have read, is an even worse experience.<br><br>Shirley &amp; John

... 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 ...

... was back in her favourite place in the world. We walked around the Bund for about an hour and then headed off to a restaurant for something to eat. I think we were all feeling very cautious about the food so we all got some vegetarian dishes and hoped for the best. Then it was back onto the subway with another million people followed by a taxi ride back to our hotel. We were back by 8pm and feeling very very very tired, so it was off to bed. Lois and I woke up at about 4 am (around ...

... uns**em Blog unt**bringen koennte. Da wir ab** den Blog wu**dig zuende bringen wollen, gehen wir einfach mal auf die Kleinigkeiten ein die das Land dann doch von d** westlichen Welt unt**scheiden und die einem **st auffallen wenn man eine Weile hi** ist. <br><br>Was relativ schnell auffaellt, ist die gen**elle Ruepeligkeit d** Leute. Wir mussten dann ab** feststellen, dass das wohl nicht daran liegt dass sie unfreundlich sind (ganz im Gegenteil, jed** hilft einem wenn man nach ...

Chinese New Years Eve was celebrated on Feb 6th. This year we said goodbye to the golden pig and welcomed the rat. The boys and I decided to go to a tea house by the lake and let off our own fire works at midnight. But before we left home I recieved a phone call from Jennifer. She was calling from Suzhou number 2 hospital because her fiances brothres girlfriend, Gemma suddenly needed an operation because some how her overies were in a ...

... the airport. We left the garden and caught a bus to the train station, the bus is cool, just like in HK you just pay one fixed fare, but here you take a ticket off the stub yourself, that wouldn't work back home! We had a bit of time to kill after we had brought the tickets so we had a bite to eat, the first meal of the whole day for Paul. By this point I was starving so I shudder to think what he was going through. The worse thing was his food took the ...

The last few days in Shanghai weren't bad, just uneventful. There really isn't a lot to do there. However, we did have one crazy adventure. We were down in the French Concession (notorious as one of the top 3 pickpocketing locales worldwide) and went into a park to use the washroom. As we got near it two young girls (about four years old) and who I assume was a grandfather saw us approach. The girls danced around us chanting the only English they ...

... les deux cotes, 3km de fringues, bottes, lunettes, chaussures, magasins de marques ou degriffes, et plus encore si l'on se met a compter les etages...). Si vous etes fatiguees d'avance, vous pouvez emprunter l'un des nombreux petits trains electriques qui vous deposent et vous reprennent a la boutique de votre choix. Et pour pouvoir enfiler la robe que vous avez achetee-bien-que-trop-petite-mais-elle- vous-plaisait-tellement-que-vous-l'avez -achetee-quand-meme vous pouvez vous arreter ...