China's National Day (like our Independence Day, and this year their 60th) and Mid-Autumn Festival were close enough together this year to form a mammoth nine-day nationwide vacation. On my second day in China, the secretary in the international department invited me (not because I'm special; it's common to invite all of your co-workers) to her wedding, which would be held October 5th, in the middle of the break. So my travel plans had to be local, which was fine with me as I was eager to see Shanghai. I also wanted to check out some of the nearby cities in Jiangsu Province (namely, Suzhou, Nanjing, Nantong, Yangzhou, and Wuxi), and one of the students who helped show me and the Finns around in early September already had plans to visit a friend in Wuxi, departing ... read more