Thursday - late start, hike, Chairman Mao' s summer digs and bullet train arrive in Shanghai

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Today we had a slow easy start which made a change. Breakfast at 9.20am and then out for a hike at 19.30am. The minibus took us to the start of the hike which took us about 40 minutes or so through the bamboo forests and other vegetation. It was a bit tough on the legs as it was mostly up hill via steps through the bamboo, but at least it was in the shade which was a blessing as it was a hot sunny day.



We finally reached the view point over the valley and village below, and had some lovely views. We stopped here to take in the scenery and catch our breath for a few minutes. The path then flattened out and the walk got easier and at the end of the walk we were picked up by the minibus and taken to see Chairman Mao 's Summer Retreat.



The retreat was quite a low key affair. On the ground floor was a sitting room and dining room. On the first floor was a bed room, office and sitting room. Some of the other rooms on both floor had become museum rooms showing pictures of Chairman Mao during his time in power and other officials, all the text was in Chinese so we couldn't read anything. Our minibus driver had negotiated us a cheap entrance fee as he knew someone who worked there. I'm so glad that this was the case as I would have been very disappointed had I paid the full price.



We then headed back to the hostel for food and to all get showered and changed and we had free time until we had to head back to the train station and more rides on the bullet train. We had one short one back to the main train station and then one which was about a couple of hours getting to Shanghai. I took some photos of the train station which was massive and had lots of departure gates similar to an airport!



Once there we had to get a long tube ride to the hostel. Kirsty, Nitzan, Bhavisha and I shared a small dorm along with an older Aussie guy who we didn't see much during our stay and a German girl who was study Chinese there, but she was only there for one night.



Kirsty and Bhavisha headed out to pizza express and Nitzan and I headed to,the roof top,bar at the hostel to,have a beer with the boys and a sandwich to fend off hunger before hitting the sack. There was only one choice of sandwich too, toasted with salad and a fried egg, good job I like fried eggs lol.



Xxx

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