China Tour 2019

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Day 7 – May 10^th - Zhengzhou to Suzhou (Snowy Sea Hotel)







In the morning we had some time to kill, so we had a leisurely breakfast then went to the mall to pick up some toiletries. Since we appeared to have plenty of time, Rhon decided to have a pedicure. Which was great except that it took us a while to negotiate what she actually wanted done, and the price, so after an hour and a half the job was finally done ($8) and we had to dash back to the hotel to be ready for the bus. (It is vital that you are not the last family in the group to arrive at the appointed departure time, otherwise, other group members who need to arrive 30 minutes earlier, get very aggro).



So we get the bus and arrive at this massive railway station (everything in China is massive) to catch a bullet train to our next stop at Suzhou. Yes there are thousands of people and we have to get to platform 23, repeat 23. And this is a station just for fast trains. Anyway we pass security, get through the gate, get to the platform, the train arrives on the dot (of course) we get to our seats and cruise for the next 4 hours at 300 kph.



Then we get out at another massive station, everybody is getting pretty weary, follow each other to meet our next guide who is a shortish, plumpish, westernised Chinese guy who is pumping energy, leads us to the bus and takes us to our next hotel which is … wait for it … magnificent. Dump our gear, head out for another ridiculously expensive ($11) meal at a local restaurant, and so to bed.



Starting to realise that these trips are no picnic – lots to see, and not a lot of time. We just did another 800 kms in 4 hrs. So by train on our two fast train journeys we travelled the equivalent of Melbourne to Brisbane in 8 hours.

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