Daryl G
Daryl Greenaway Joined: June 11th 2008
Logged in: September 4th 2011
Logged in: September 4th 2011
Travel Blog Posts
This morning was an early start for me. I was up around 5am, and had a shower and got all packed up. Dan woke up, and we said our goodbyes also. He’d been a great roomie, a good friend, and we planned to catch up when he got back from Hong Kong and Dubai. From the hotel, I got the metro to Longyang Road, which is where I picked up the Maglev fast train that took me to the airport. After a while in the terminal, my flight left at around 10:30am, on time, and my time in China was over. It had been a real blast, and I’d met ten truly amazing people, who’d made my time in China so special. Hopefully we’ll all meet up again some time.... read more
This morning we were up around 9am. We skipped breakfast, and just wanted to say our goodbyes to Marcia. She’d been excellent over the last week and a bit, and had made ten great friends over the time. She had to get the train back to Xī’ān that day, which was something crazy like a 24-hour journey. We gave her a little treat the previous night at dinner, and we all promised to give her great feedback. The girls weren’t booked in the hotel for that day, so they had to check out, but we moved their stuff into our room, for safekeeping. After a while, we decided it was time for an early lunch, so we found a Pizza Hut, and had some nice grub there. Dan and the girls planned to get a foot ... read more
Huangpu River Cruise
This morning we tried breakfast in the hotel. Third time lucky we thought, but no we were let down again. Yet more oddly placed foods for breakfast, but hey it filled us up. This morning we were heading to Shànghăi Museum. We’d read good things about this place. Marcia gave us a little orientation tour whilst over this side of town also, to give us some ideas on what to do during the rest of the day. We got to the museum and had to queue, which wasn’t a great start. Once in, we checked the place out. The highlight for me was on the top floor, with the traditional costume area. This was pretty impressive, and really interesting, but the other areas didn’t really do it for me. There were plenty of coins, and pots ... read more
Arriving in Shànghăi
We leave Sūzhōu for Shànghăi at around 9am. We didn’t have time for breakfast, though surprisingly we weren’t really that hungry. The coach trip took us a couple of hours I’d say, and wasn’t anything too special. A lot of us were still tired, so we caught up on some shut-eye during the journey. We arrived late morning, and got to Nanjing Hotel, located in the Huangpu district, with no problem. We checked in, and went to our rooms to freshen up. The rooms were nice. I was pleased, as we hadn’t had a bad room all trip. Our view from the hotel room looked out over the rooftops of tiny old-style housing, and had the modern buildings, particularly the imposing Shànghăi Shimao International Plaza, in the background. Back down to the lobby after an hour, ... read more
Sūzhōu Canal trip
Woke up at around 6:30am this morning. Couldn’t really do much until everyone else was awake, so just stuck my iPod on. Gradually everyone stirred. Some had noodles for breakfast, but to be honest, I didn’t want any breakfast. At that particular moment, I longed for a normal simple breakfast like cereal or toast. We weren’t going to be arriving at Sūzhōu until mid morning, so there was plenty of time to kill. Damon, Georgia, Lisa and Vince were playing a new game of cards they’d found out, so I joined them. I wasn’t too sure on the name of the card game, but it certainly passed the time, until all the others stirred and we’d neared our stop. On arrival, we made our way through to the exit, and then walked over to the taxis. ... read more
Army of Terracotta Warriors
This morning we were up, and had had our cold showers, and were ready for whatever today threw at us. We avoided the hotel for breakfast this time, and Dan and I went down the road to Starbucks. We saw the girls on the way back, and then headed over to the bakery for some bits. Then we all walked back to the hotel, and waited for the others. Once we were all there, we got on the bus bound east out of Xī’ān, to the Army of Terracotta Warriors. We arrived at the site late morning, and got in with no real waiting around. Our first stop was to watch a panorama film presentation, which explained the history of the Army of Terracotta Warriors. The site was uncovered only in 1974, as peasants drilled a ... read more
Not much room
We arrived at Xī’ān at around 6:30am in the end I think. Everyone was up early anyway, as it was light outside early in the morning, and you have all the noise of the other passengers and everything too. It didn’t take long to get ready. It’s always a mad rush getting off the train, as it only stops for a few minutes, and obviously we all had our awkward rucksacks to load onto ourselves, so we were ready for a while before we actually stopped. We left the station, and then walked to our hotel, which was only a five- or ten-minute walk. It was again very busy out on the streets already, and we all got our now customary looks from the locals. The hotel we were staying at was called Guan Zhong Hotel. ... read more
Tiananmen Square
Today was going to be a busy day. Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, a visit to the Běijīng Hútòng area (one of our options), and then back to the hotel to pick the bus up to take us to the rail station, for our night train to Xī’ān. From memory, I think we skipped breakfast today, as there just wasn’t time, so we just got snacks from the local store, as well as some more water. Tiananmen Square is only a short walk really, but we went by metro anyway. The nearest station is Tiananmen XI. It was a really hot day in Běijīng today, and I knew I’d have to be careful, so the sunscreen was gonna be topped up during the day. We got to Tiananmen Square, and Marcia gave us a short history talk, ... read more
Base of the wall climb
Up bright and early today, as we had a 9am pick-up for the Great Wall, so we had ‘breakfast’ in the hotel. One thing to beware in the hotels is that their ‘Western-style’ breakfast might not be what you expect. They seem to overcook everything for some reason, and I missed my tea too. Dan was sceptical of the scrambled egg too, but I gambled on it. On completing breakfast, we headed to a tiny supermarket that was only a short stroll out of the hotel. If only, I’d known about this on the Sunday and Monday, I’d have eaten some decent food instead of junk. To get to the supermarket we had to walk through the food hall, which was crammed full of every single type of fresh food you could think of, from raw ... read more
Temple of Heaven map
This morning, after a shower, I nipped out for some breakfast. Without really wanting to trust the hotel’s Chinese-Western breakfast, I decided the only place I could trust would be the McDonald’s. I know, I’m so English! But it was a nice breakfast. I must point already, that as you read through this whole trip, you won’t be reading about me trying out every fast food restaurant in China. I did have local food, but just not yet. After this, I went out for another walk out. I went westwards this time, getting my bearings, and trying to find a few places for food. I couldn’t find the place I wanted, so headed back to the hotel, to get out of the heat for a while. On returning to the hotel, the maid was doing the ... read more
