Blogs from Zhejiang, China, Asia - page 5

Fast train to Hangzhou yesterday morning. Hangzhou is famous for its lake, West Lake and the surrounding park. It is considered one of the most beautiful cities in China. The city attracts many domestic tourists as it sits just one hour by train from Shanghai. I’m staying at a 100 year old YMCA just a 5 minute walk from the lake. Now, the windows to the lobby are painted with the lyrics to the Village People song. It is a wonderful building set apart from its surroundings by a wall. I was surprised at the room and the amenities. Though there are dorm rooms as well, mine was not what I imagine when I picture a YMCA. The lake is beautiful and the walk around it was very active. There are numerous temples, pagodas and gardens ... read more

Paris is far behind me now as I sit in Jinhua. The flight from Paris boarded late delaying my arrival in Shanghai. I am happy that my friend Terry (travellingterry) was able to meet me. We did have minor issues to get ourselves en route to Jinhua, mostly due to my overweight baggage. I already knew the hardships of trying to manoeuvre my suitcase, carrier bag, and secondary bag while arriving and leaving Paris. None of this had prepared me for dragging it all around Shanghai, using it as a foot stool during the train ride, and rolling it around the streets of Jinhua at midnight. Terry settled me in at one of the outside restaurants as he went to a near by motel to secure me a room for the night (which became my “home ... read more

As most of you know for the past 10 months i have been working at Happy Goal English. On this day i knew it was going to be a long day. Not only did i hav to show up to the office at 8:30 in the morning after going to bed at 3 in the morning. Well, honestly forgetting about the trip the previous day and being woken up by a phone call asking me where i was. Then being reminded about this trip. Not only does the people have to go on this trip we also have classes later in the day. So, yippie. So after being woken up and speed dressing and driving like a crazy person to get to work in a reasonable amount of time, only just as i am getting off ... read more

Started the day with the short high speed rail journey from Shanghai to Suzhou. The experience would be familiar to air travellers complete with security checks and a short wait at a platform gate. Internally the carriages resemble an aircraft cabin with reclining seats and plently of leg room plus they run on time ! The walled and moated Suzhou city is 2500 years old having been established during the Wu kingdom in 514 BC. It is known as the Venice of the East having a network of canals linking it to a number of freshwater lakes and the Yangtze river. In comparison with Shanghai it is low rise and nine of its classical gardens are world heritage listed. The most famous of the gardens and the next stop on our itinerary is that of that ... read more

WuZhou Ancient City On Saturday February the first. I went to the Wuzhou ancient City here in Jinhua along with a coworker from my job. I admit I had a certain idea on what it would be like purely based on the name. Which led me to be somewhat disappointed with the reality of what it was when I arrived. It just goes to show you that not to make judgements based purely on names. So on that Sunday, I had found out how to get to the Ancient City, via the city transit. So off I went, dropped off my ebike at the school and went for a bite to eat. then met up with Dina, the coworker i was going to go with. Up to this point I had pictured Wuzhou Ancient City, a ... read more