Zhongshan Hotel Suzhou

... parking lot was full of them. We enjoyed the chance to get out and walk on our own for the first time in China. It was also interesting to be somewhere that tourists don&#8217;t typically go. There were a lot of stares and waves from the locals.<br><br>We headed to the top tourist destination in Suzhou next; Tiger Hill. At the top of Tiger Hill is a thousand year old Buddhist Temple, which also happens to have a fifteen degree lean. So not ...

... side of the street are homes, shops, eating establishments, hair salons, a scooter mechanic shop, a small hotel, and many street vendors. It seems like the entire neighborhood is out on the street every morning getting ready for the day. As we turn onto the street we often see a little old lady hunched over as she works on her small garden plot beside the road. A few more meters and we pick up the pace as we pass the ...

... we find a group practising Tai Chi. It is so graceful and they make it look so easy although I am sure it is not. There are more fish ponds, walkways, pavilions, seats and picnickers. The sound of more music leads us to an outdoor version of Strictly Come Dancing. OK, maybe not, but the dancers are extremely proficient at the nifty foot-work. From what we can see anyone can join in but we decide that we might need longer to learn the steps ...

... the Chinese school, so to use the gym and observatory and auditorium the owner of the school has to pay for it, which he's not willing to do. The owner is building a new state of the art school which is supposed to be ready in about 18 months. <br><br>The students day begins at 7am when they meet in their classrooms for some English instruction with their Chinese Teacher Assistants. Each classroom has a Chinese Teacher Assistant. These Assistants are ...

... of about 23 million people. I think about 1 million of those people were on the subway when we got on. Actually the subway is very modern and fast. Seems to be pretty similar to the Skytrain in Vancouver, though it seems to run a little faster. Well if there were about 1 million people on the subway I think the other 22 million people were in downtown Shanghai when we got there. People everywhere. Jordana's face lit up when we walked up the stairs from the underground subway and ...

... nach Suzhou zu fahren. <br><br>Die letzten paar Tage waren relativ unspektakula**. Das liegt in **ste Linie daran, dass China extrem geordnet ist und hi** nicht das taegliche Chaos h**rscht wie in allen and**en Laend**n uns**** Reise. Die meistens Leute wu**den das wahrscheinlich nicht **warten wenn man sie an China denken, ab** auf den **sten Blick unt**scheiden sich die grossen Staedte hi** nicht so sehr von denen in Europa. Dementsprechend passi**t auch viel we***** was man ...

... these home with him. It would be a bit bulky and heavy in our backpacks. We also visited a Buddhist temple. Tomorrow we visit a 1600 year old Buddhist temple. (I think I have my days mixed up as we visited Lingering Gardens 3/31, but I just uploaded the pics on this date. Oh well, after blogging for 6 1/2 hours I am getting a bit tired and slap happy so please forgive me being out of order, I guess in more ways than one!) Jane

... got there the sky clouded over and it was only a matter of time before the rain came down. This place was really nice and very tranquil, it's basically a very well maintained old style Chinese mansion, it has the most beautiful gardens that wrap around the whole place. It's a bit of a maze inside with lots of different rooms and passages. We were there for a while and could probably have chilled longer, but Brian had to get back to Shanghai to pick up friends ...

... petit mais me suit de vachement pres). Entre le bund et le grand boulevard, il y a l'anncienne cite avec ses innombrables magasins de souvenirs, et plus au nord des petits bazars, un quartier uyghur, ou l'on mange d'excellentes brochettes de poulet ou de poulpes autour d'une bonne biere (ca c'est pour nous messieurs). Pour vous mesdames, il ya Nanjing Road, un gigantesque centre commercial a l'air libre : une rue pietonne de pres de 1.5km de long avec que des boutiques (soit, en ...

Kit: Today we saw some more gardens. The first one was all right but the others were boring. The reason the first one was good is that it had lots of rocks to jump about on, and climb on and play hide-and-seek on. Dylan: In the gardens we saw lots of people putting lanterns up for the Moon Cake Festival on the 29 September. Raymond's Travel Page