Weekend in Suzhou

---

Hello Everyone! I love you ALL!!
Shanghai is a fascinating city of 20+million inhabitants!!! It is a HUGE city and I'm walking 5-7 miles a day, which I LOVE! I found some cool spots where "foreigners" like me hang out called Xin-tian-di (pronounce shin tiene dee) It's soo weird to see westerners after NOT having seen them for days at a time....it's almost startling. I think I might get an idea of what it's like to be a minority. For example, I rode the subway solo the other day, and felt every single eye watching and even staring at me. It's not a hostile stare, more of a curious one, as though you are a strange being from another planet and the Shanhainese are just curious as ever!

The traffic is FREAKING cool to watch. I tried to load a video, so look around here for it. It loaded successfully! It's a very organic movement...like blood cells flowing through blood vessels and channels and intersections, lightly bumping but never crashing. I have not seen ONE accident yet! It's amazing!

We went to the Bund the other night. The Meaning of the word "Bund" is Promenade/causeway. It is a pedestrian area of Shanghai where the architecture on one side of the river is the old British Colony Style and the other side is full of Futuristic downtown skyscrapers. It is very surreal! The Bund at night is lit up like Las Vegas on steroids, and the walkway is almost like a circus...buzzing with lots of sellers selling trinkets, Chinese kites, spinning wheels, and skates that strap onto any pair of shoes. These sellers are relentless in trying to make you buy something, rather like little mosquitoes buzzing around your head and as you swat one away, another returns from the other side....but it is just the atmosphere of the place, and I enjoyed it.

Over this past weekend we went to a small town about 100 miles northwest of Shanghai. We took the "fast train" ( 160+ MPH!!) Rountrip cost: $10 US. It was amazing! We traveled 100 miles in 25 minutes! The ancient city of Suzhou is famous for its gardens in the classical Chinese style. Each garden has its own unique layout. In the construction of some gardens, water is emphasized, with artificial hills around it, connected with elegant corridors and paviliions. In some gardens, bizarre rockeries dominate the scene, with creeks and ponds encircled. buildings, displaying a diversity of architectural styles.

---

Photos

Italian food
We were craving pizza!

160MPH fast train
this is one cool electric train!

Suzhou Garden
up in the Pagoda

Comments

[Julie]

great pics
hey danny...looks like you're having a great time. Your pics are awesome. Enjoy the rest of your stay! hugs - Julie