Blogs from Jiangsu, China, Asia

August 6th - Last Day in Chengdu - Dia 46 Waking up alone was a weird feeling. I didn't have anybody to talk to while preparing to head out for another day in China. With a lot of time in my hands I decided to start the day right, with some Yoga and stretches ? As I headed out to eat breakfast I ran into a Chinese friend I had made yesterday, Alijie and the Australian guy, Jake. We decided to head out for breakfast together and keep exploring Chengdu. I guess I was not going to be alone jajaja Our first visit of the day was the Museum of Chendu. It was not much of a visit since we realized it was closed when getting there. Switching museums we decided to head over to Sichuan ... read more

We arrived in Suzhou at lunchtime and headed to the main downtown area to find some lunch. We had looked up some of Suzhou's famous food online and headed to a place that served sour vegetable fish soup. My friend said it was a Suzhou dish, but after doing my own research it appears to be a Sichuan dish. Why does all the best food in China originate from Sichuan? I don't know if my friend meant that the restaurant we were going to was a famous restaurant in Suzhou (I saw several posts advertising the place around Suzhou) or whether the other soup, a tomato based one, that the restaurant offers was a traditional Suzhou dish. We ordered the soup and some shrimp tempura to snack on while we waiting for the soup. The meals ... read more

On day six of our China adventure we travelled by bus from Hangzhou to Suzhou, our first stop was at the Master of the Nets garden which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The garden demonstrates Chinese garden designers' adept skills for synthesising art, nature, and architecture to create unique masterpieces which explore the fundamental question regarding the nature of concepts such as being, existence and reality. The Master of the Nets is particularly regarded among garden connoisseurs for its mastering the techniques of relative dimension, contrast, foil, sequence and depth, and borrowed scenery. The Master of the Nets garden, originally called Ten Thousand Volume Hall, was first constructed in 1140 by Shi Zhengzhi the Deputy Civil Service Minister of the Southern Song Dynasty government who was inspired by the simple and solitary life of a ... read more

The first few weeks of China... well to be honest I felt like a lost toddler in a supermarket many times. To get myself sorted, I found myself people who I consider my China family - Tim was the first addition to the family, he became like my older brother. We both come from NZ and actually met through a mutual friend via Facebook as he came from the UK to China as opposed to NZ like myself but we met up in Beijing for the TEFL course and it just so happened we were going to be working together at Disney English for the year. When we arrived in Suzhou, we were both placed at the same hotel for three weeks. There was not one day in my first three weeks of China I did ... read more

By this point in time, I was very well settled in Suzhou. I have amazing friends and have become quite the social butterfly. But to an extent that I did not even realise. After a year of flatting with Americans then a year with just one Irish girl, feeling like a challenge, I made the decision to flat alone. I was getting to the point I just needed some me time and a place to calm down and reconnect with my inner self. What better way to do this than in a beautiful two bedroomed apartment with a massive 52 inch tv on the 16th floor with a great view and have it all to myself!? Of course, moving into a new flat is not complete without a house warming party. So I decided by October ... read more