Blogs from Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, Asia - page 22

well, time to leave shanghai. great city, i must admit. i got up at 6.30 to leave the flat at 7.00 and forget my soap, not a major mistake. my appointment with felix was meeting at the railway station a 7.30. when he was not there at 7.40, i went for the train. some minutes later he showed up in the train. we arrived in sunzhou and at first took a cab to the "humble administrators garden". nice garden, that's true. a lot of ponds, stones and small pavillions, but very crowded. maybe saturday is not the perfect day to go to suzhou. then we went to "tiger hill". this place was much nicer actually because much larger and so the many tourists (mainly chinese) would gather in crowds on just some spots of the whole ... read more

We are in Suzhou for another few days. This blog is more an observation of Chinese culture than a description of places. Please enjoy the pictures. I took a leap of courage and walked around Suzhou on Friday. It was interesting to see the hustle and bustle of the city, learn to navigate crossing a street and basically learning where everything is located. I feel very safe walking around. Everday I get a little braver and try new things to accustom myself to the culture. I really did not do to much other than walking. I stopped at tea/coffee house to get out of the heat. I spent an hour just watching the intersection to see how traffice interacts. I have come to like good jasmine green tea. It is better with the loose tea than ... read more

The coup continues, I am still in command while Norma recovers. There are several water villages, based around canals, in the delta region and we were lucky enough to visit two of them. First was Wuzhen village, a very historic village of old wooden homes, each facing on a street and backing on a canal. In the centre of the village was a canal basin surrounded by steps, which was a market place where goods brought in by boat were sold. The whole village has been declared a heritage site and is protected by the government, when people move out to new apartments in nearby towns the government assumes the homes. The actual remaining population is small and consists mainly elderly folk who want to stay in their homes until they die. Many of the homes ... read more

Thursday night was crazy. We went to Bonbon, normally a trance bar. But it was Hisae's birthday, so we went to dinner first. Me and Chuck got her a cake, which was supposed to be a coffee and chocolate flavor cake, but was some sort of white cake with fruit. It was still good, but not what we expected. The food at the restaurant was good, but the service was lackluster, especially for what we were paying. We also bought a bottle of Chilean merlot, which I liked, but it was not to the taste of some of the others. But here's the good part: we were at club bonbon, and the DJ was none other than the one and only DJ Jazzy Jeff. Are you kidding me? He was cool when I was In 3rd ... read more

Suzhou is one of China's ancient water towns, and is probably Jiangsu's major tourist attraction. It is famous for its classical gardens, silk, freshwater pearls and beautiful women! In recent times, Suzhou is a popular alternative to Shanghai for international companies investing in hi-tech and light industrial manufacturing. It is about 21/2 hrs from Taizhou by bus, and only an hour by train from Shanghai. I had been looking forward to travelling to Suzhou for some weeks, but time and other commitments had prevented me from doing so. My friend and neighbour in Oz, Jacque, is teaching in nearby Taicang, so it was a good excuse to get away and make contact before she returns to Oz in July. Jacque and I decided to keep things simple (and cheap!) and booked into the Suzhou International Youth ... read more