Zhiyuan Hotel Suzhou

... a menu already!!!! Drives me CRAZY!!!!

... bought me a small hot water bottle like
thing. It doesn't open, the water stays in the rubber all the time.
It comes with a plug to electrically heat up the water in the bottle,
it is really cool, hot actually. A little light goes off on the electrical cord when
it is warm. I love it. Many of the students have them, they put them
in their lap in the classroom to stay warm. It is the hotest thing.


I have checked ...

... region that you can't enter without paying a hefty fee.

Still, there are neighbourhoods here that have survived, retaining their ancient charm without trying or making a big deal out of it. Their narrow cobblestone streets buzz with activity, as pots steam, fish flop in buckets, and laundry drips dry from above. But these gems are hidden among the tourists zones and overshadowed by cloud-touching condos.

In conversation with young Chinese people, I have told ...

... bus and we took an hour and a half bus ride to Suzhou. Most of us in the group had never heard of Suzhou, but it has been around for a while. In fact, it was founded over 2500 years ago! Marco Polo visited here and called it the Venice of the East. The Grand Canal, which at over 1100 miles is the longest canal in the world, runs past Suzhou and connects to the moat around the old city of Suzhou. Suzhou is considered a small city, since it ...

... Disney parks, Cinderella carriage tours, Mickey Mouse
and other fairy-tale star performances, etc., the average price of
which is about 27,000 U.S. dollars, balanced with the average American
wedding ...

... lucky at my all itinerary because I hadn't encountered rain at all even the weather was cloudy at some cities such as Suzhou. Suzhou is also famous in silk and painting. It has many IT markets and electronics and has amusement park.

My today itinerary is to visit Lingering Garden, Pan Gate, and No.1 Silk Factory.



I went first to Lingering Garden (留园) which it is a private garden owned by a man known to be government employee and ...

... hostel when the friend arrived. Not only did they help me get to my hostel but they walked with me to a place where I could find something to eat. I was so fortunate (and grateful) to run into such nice people. Suzhou is a very nice city and what is especially nice is the location of my hostel here. I am right on a relatively narrow "pedestrian only" street called Piang Jiang that goes right by a water canal. In Suzhou and the surrounding areas these water canals ...

... was just one of the interesting discussions we had at inner last night. At a restaurant 3 minutes away from the hotel, the administrators treated us to more than 10 courses of exquisite Suzhou style dishes, including "squirrel fish" (no squirrels were harmed during the preparation process!). Most of the conversations were carried out in Chinese, so Bobby focused his attention on the food while listening for keywords and figuring out what we ...

This is a photo update - I don't really have any good stories to relate from the last few days. I arrived into Nanjing after spending the night travelling in hard sleeper class. Imagine the 4-berth cabin that you saw in the photos from Russia, only with 6 beds stuffed into it. And no door. Basically, it was near impossible to get any sleep at all - there were people talking, getting on and off the train and (of course) spitting all night. I ended up having to ...

... a great idea especially due to the growth of our worldwide population. The way it works is that the first child you have is covered by the Government, schooling, medical all of the social programs. The second child is not recognized by the government, the parents pay a fine and then have to cover all the expenses of that child. When the world doubles population, in spite of plague, war or famine every 30 years the U.S. still gives tax breaks to ...