China update

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Hey,

Well we went for one night to Suzhou and it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I thought that it would be a peacefull place, with lots of orginal buildings showing china's archeticture. However it turns out that its full of KFC, McDonalds and all the places which you try and get away from. We did manage to find a nice area by the river which did try and retain a bit of culture, however this again was contrasted by suave cafes with electronic sliding doors which didn't really match the feel. So far the travel through China has sort of left us with the feeling that we could live here, but that its only because we can relate to it so much and fit in, with the only difficulty being the Language.

We always ask ourselves if China is slowly losing its identity? India certaintly had a in your face culture and were very opposed to giving that up, and although you think they will never progress with the way they do things you can plainly see that they have a very distinct culture.

Anyway the next day we went to Shanghai, yes another big city where we won't find that cultural experience! But it is still nice to visit, the major downfall here, emphasising my previous point, was the amount of resturants that use knives and forks. To me this should never be allowed unless asked for.

We both like Shanghai, its big has lots of hidden places to discover and the skyscapers to set the night alight. We managed to go up the 3rd tallest building in the world the Shanghai world finance centre (only to the 94th floor as we couldn't afford to go higher) but the views were spectacular. One of the nicest views is looking over the red and blue houses developed just around the Bund area.

To our dissapointment it is becoming ever so clear that we should have brought our artwork in Beijing although Shanghai has lots of art galleries the traditional artscene where you can pick up some artwork for 50 Y is not evident here. We went to the French Concession and the artwork and things in general are very expensive but very nice, but we don't trust shipping anything home that is worth any substantial value.

Today we are heading to Huangshan and hopefully visting the Yellow mountains (where it mentions 'once you see the scenery here you won't want to go to any other mountains') I just hope it isn't foggy.

I'll update soon hopefully with stories of Chinese culture, I really think we need to go to the villages.

Hope everyone is well,

Mark

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