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Published: April 24th 2013
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CHINA: FACES OF JIANGSU. Slow train to Suzhou...overnight soft sleeper from Anhui...woken by blaring music somewhere under Simon's mattress.
Denise & Anna-Lou brush their teeth in the wash room...man clearing his nose...filling the basin...changed our minds they declare...still can't find how to turn the music down.
Chatting to an Aussie who leads school groups into Tibet...what a life...our fond memories of Lhasa...hope to go back there one day.
Train sitting at a station...3 white snub-nosed trains pull in...surely can't be bullet trains...surely not.
But they are.
Taxi from the station...drops us off...pointing down a narrow lane...by a canal...entering another world of eons past...the ancient canal city of Suzhou.
Ancient Ming Dynasty mansion...our digs for several days....massive rooms...4 poster bed...wooden bath...perfect.
Or so I thought.!
No colder place in China...snowing outside...felt like it was snowing inside...felt like the Arctic Wind lived in our bedroom...the kids' smaller room cosy they said...took me days to work out the aircon...longer to be advised there was a second aircon behind our bed!
Did I mention it was cold?
Ffff...rrreezing.
Just the way I like it?
Outside...Yep...colder the better.
Inside...No way...Can't stop shivering.
Well...if you want a concrete sealed block...go elsewhere.
If you want authentic ancient Ming digs...don't complain...draught complimentary.
Hang on there...love this place...who's complaining?
Not me!
Life by the Canal The Venice of the East they call it...our digs next to a canal...Pingliang old town...over a stone bridge...tinkle of bicycle bells...food carts steaming...street food...people jostling...just doing their thing.
Locals coming for washing...guys in boats with scoops...collecting leaves & any rubbish from the water...white-washed buildings...cobbled streets...the China we love to see.
We just stroll up and down...stopping for a dumpling here...a duck gizzard there...avoiding the mopeds & bikes honking right of way...lights at night...cold when it snows...when the wind blows...life passing by...just like us...just passing by.
Where Lovers Go And across the stone bridge...the No. 1 Tourist site in all of Suzhou...or so the book says (but I reckon the Museum is busier)...is a cafe...a Wi-Fi spot...where lovers go...and drink coffee or tea...and write love letters or cards to each other...or to their loved ones in towns or countries afar...1,000s of cards for sale...1,000s on the walls...always busy...coloured pencils on every desk...roaring trade.
Suzhou Museum Several neolithic cultures 5,000 years ago or so lived around the Yangtze delta area...nicely displayed in the Suzhou Museum.
Bronze age...artifacts through the dynasties...jade...ceramic...ivory...wood...nice collection...worth a visit.
Food...Fabulous Food Our digs had a Fusion Restaurant nearby that served some spectacular dishes...private room each night overlooking the canal...Snow beer (Simon's favourite)...fried chilli beans (Den's & my staple all over China)...soups...mushroom...pork...fish to make you salivate.
I'm rather partial to whole fish...baked or grilled...that I can pick at with chop-sticks.
In Suzhou I had the best fish I have eaten in Asia...yep...in all of Asia...and that's saying something.
It was a whole fish...baked in strips of lotus leaves...unbelievably good...jowls dripping thinking about it. Bon Voyage...until next we meet We had flown our son Simon from Canada to join us for Christmas...and he was due back at work in Toronto on New Years Eve.
So we got his bus ticket to take him from Suzhou to Pudong Airport in Shanghai...like the Last Supper...not knowing when next we meet.
Gotta say it was fantastic to have the family together for Christmas 2012...the four of us...fantastic.
Taxi to the bus
station...snowing...nothing like it will be when he's back in Canada...Simon analysing the type of snowflake...Anna-Lou asking if there's anything he doesn't know!
Shed a tear as his face in the bus window getting smaller as the bus pulls away...Denise's tears flowing..."Bon Voyage...until next time."
Fast train to Shanghai We stayed in Suzhou a couple more days...Anna-Lou spending a lot of time in the cafe nearby...Y generation texting...eating Wi-Fi.
I on the other hand was watching TV shows on Tibetan self-immolation...from a Chinese perspective...wrapped in a doona...and constant news stories of the rape of the girl on a bus in India...her subsequent death and demonstrations in India for women's rights...outrage in China...outrage everywhere.
Please may her death bring moral change.
I arranged with the Lodge that we catch a bullet train to Shanghai. Worked out we'd catch the 1.13pm from Suzhou.
Packs on our backs and up the lane by the canal to the main road. Taxis passed us by as if put off by three Westerners with backpacks.
Eventually got to the Railway Station...through security...where to buy tickets?
A helpful official explained we had to go out again and
walk 100 metres to our right and electronic ticketing.
Found that all right but all in Chinese and noone who could speak English in coo-ee.
Eventually found a ticket office where you could line up and the ticket sellers spoke English.
"The 1.13 bullet train to Shanghai please" Long pause.
"I'm sorry sir. That train is full." "Oh No!" "But I can get you on the 1.18"!!!! You are kidding...5 minutes apart...60 RMB (AUD$10 each)...and they left on time.
26 minutes to Shanghai...average speed 261 KPH ...smooth as silk...there before we knew it.
Think I'll contact Aspiring Nomad...time for a reunion. Time I educated the Nomad...YEH...IT'S TIME. Relax & Enjoy,
Dancing Dave
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aspiringnomad
Jason
It's unique to pull off unique these days.
I reckon you've done it... growing into this style like a Great Banyan now standing proudly alone. A grandeur in the twisted chaos. Makes me nostalgic for China even though I'm here...filling in those dots as I read.