Waiting in Wuxi

So after a little lie in and big breakfast we were off to Wuxi to go to the airport to catch a flight to Beijing. Look at their awesome public art!


We got to the airport in plenty of time, weather was nice, all was going smoothly until...we make it through security (i didn't get searched - yay) but our plane was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. Our gate didn't even have a plane at it! Turns out the weather was bad which means it was late leaving Beijing to get to us before going back. On its way to us we had massive storms which meant it couldn't land so it went to another airport. Several hours later, after a free drink and having read most of the guide book a plane appeared. It was not ours, boooo. We did then hear that we'd changed gate and was leaving at 5, over 3 and a half hours late. We were going to miss the opera and the Temple of Heaven and instead saw lots of Chinese people sitting and waiting. No ones fault, an act of nature but still, annoying. If we had driven it would have taken 14 hours so still better, but only just!

Once boarded the plane we did get an in flight meal which we did not expect. A can of some strange porridge type substance that was horrible, some what looked like pickled gherkin, shrimp crackers, artificial cake and a chocolate wafer. A very odd meal indeed. Eventually when we made it to Beijing we were greeted by 'Megan' our guide whilst in the city. Still raining i might add we boarded our bus to go to our hotel having missed everything from today. Turns out we are going to the opera after the great wall and ming tombs tomorrow so all is not lost.

Megan was very informative on our journey. She started by telling us about the name Beijing. Bei means north and jing means capital. This was the capital of new China. The previous capital was Nanying, Nan meaning south, so you had the capital in the south then the north. The jing is the character you see at the start of every Beijing based number plate so you know they are from here. She was also telling us about the layout of the city. The CBD is in the east and to the north you have silicon valley and i think she said the university. The south east is the BDA - Beijing Development Area for Science and Technology and to the west is the financial district. In the centre is the ancient town, hudong meaning alleyways. This looks like a crazy version of the Burgess Model.

Throughout Beijing they have 6, yes 6, ring roads in and around this city model. This city must be huge! She also said that statistics say that each month there are 58000 more cars on the road, crazy. During the Olympics they tried to control the congestion and pollution by not allowing people to drive their cars on one day a week, so number plates starting or ending (i can't remember which) with 0 or 1 on one day, 2-3 the next day etc. All can drive on bank holidays. Very interesting, takes me back to A level coursework and the nethos in Athens. Anyho enough of the lesson, we got here eventually.

Tonight we were left to our own devices to sort dinner, hmmm easy option - the hotel buffet, or hard - attempt a local restaurant. We as always make it hard. We tried pizza but the wave the guy gave us was goodbye not hello so we went over to Sizzler. After somehow making the guy understand we wanted food we were seated and ordering steak teryaki medium rare - oh yeah i managed it. We went back chuffed we braved it alone!

Rickety Rickshaw Riding...

Very early start today ready for our 8am rickshaw ride! Considering we laugh at the tourists in the rickshaws at Covent Garden we must have looked a right sight for the locals - 14 rickshaws riding along the road. We first took the rickshaw ride to the park. Honestly, at one point the cyclist was driving into head on traffic! We arrived at the park to a group of ladies fan dancing. Wandering around there were people doing Tai Chi which Tracey says is easy to remember by motioning a circle to show the watermelon, divide it in half for you and half for me! Good way to remember it! There were people dancing, aerobics and one lady in a baby pink Chinese suit doing some kind of Tai Chi with a sword - she was amazing and looked exactly like a character from street fighter or tekken. Definitely in kill bill training mode - wonder what her mission is?

So after this relaxing time in the park we re boarded the rickety rickshaw for a ride to the manic market. And what a market it was! Fruit and veg as you walk in, then meat at the back including trotters and chicken feet and in the back corner live chickens and birds - you could chose your own. We went for a walk around the fish section - all still alive - was so busy looking at a bag of frogs trying to work out if they were alive or dead that i didn't spot the fish trying to escaped and jumped out of its tank to another covering me in fishy water! Ewwww smelly, oh and the frogs were alive! The fish later escaped to the floor and had to be rescued by someone on our tour. It was now time for our last leg of the rickshaw ride back to the hotel. Our cyclist was just as risky as the other legs of the journey though i did feel sorry for him, at one point he got off and dragged us along the road. He earned his tip for sure - don't think we actually gave him enough!

We then went to a silk factory that was actually quite good. We saw each stage of the silk making process from the silk worms chomping on the mulberry bush leaves like the hungry caterpillar, making their cocoons, sorting the cocoons into good and bad ones and removing the twins which are extremely large cocoons, then the machine that heats them to kill the pupa then the machine that finds the end of the silk thread and winds it around a real ready to be used to weave. Interesting really. Then another person soaks the twins and removes the double pupa, then stretches the cocoon over a stand, this is used to make the silk duvet as its too hard to find the end to use for clothing and fabric. The shop was good too, had some trendy gear and some not so! Bought some bargains for pure silk.

Tiger Hill was our final stop today. Named so due to the brothers that founded it as Tiger was their surname. At the peak of the hill was a 7 level pagoda - which leans slightly, it is the leaning tower of Pisa of the east! The leaning tower of tiger, ha. Just as we were leaving the peak we heard a massive rumble, then a flash, then another rumble. Oh dear! We walked down a little when a few spits of rain appeared. Wendy decided we should pause just in case - wise move - it hammered it down. Constant thunder and lightening for what felt like forever. Tracey is saying this is a regular shower but the building we were sheltering by started to flood! That's never just a regular shower! Eventually it eased off and we made it back to the bus before it started again! We have now truly experienced the Chinese climate and the jack in a pack was definitely the best £6 spent for this holiday!

Soft Suzhou

Though we were given time this morning to chillax before leaving for Suzhou it turns out we had a massive drama. After getting up we had to pack to leave and Sarah locked her case only to find out she couldn't open it again! After much yanking and trying a number of different codes we went for brekkie to think of Plan A and B. Plan A was to text her dad to google it, my Plan B was to break in! In my ignorance in suitcases it turns out that Samsonite cases can't be broken into, hmmmm. Time came for our cases to be collected so for now it was left, but no worries, the story continues later!

We left for Shanghai train station for our train to Suzhou. The station was huge and randomly you had to go through security in order to get in! Obviously we stood out like a sore thumb in amongst the locals waiting for the train. Kind of cool really seeing and existing in the real China rather than the tourist China. It reached 12.39 and our train sign turned green, which i can only guess means it was ready for boarding. So off we went, pushing and shoving like everyone else to get to the train and take our seat. It turns out they have only been using the high speed train a month and you can tell, clean and well kept. As we left Shanghai we reached a top speed of 325km/hr whizzing past flats, houses and then farms as we left the city. Half an hour later we arrived in Suzhou, or the Earthy Paradise as it means. Here everything is softer, the place - it's a lot slower and less frantic, the language - even arguments don't sound abrasive and the men, according to our guide Wendy. Bunny was handed over to Wendy for safe keeping during our time here.

We firstly visited The Humble Administration Garden, a large space designed as if you were walking around a painting. Lots of small buildings, traditional in style are mixed amongst ponds covered in lotus flowers. It turns out that women were only allowed in this garden during festivals or special occasions, not really fair. However one man built a garden around his house for him and his wife to enjoy. That's nice. The Couples Retreat Garden was a lot smaller but still had small buildings, ponds and lotus flowers. After a long time walking round the gardens (my legs were killing) we made it back to the hotel.

So as promised earlier the drama of the suitcase continues. Plan A wasn't really working as Sarah had no reply from her dad and Plan B was a way off yet, Tracey got the porters to come and help. So as i emerged from the loo to a room of people speaking Chinese Plan C was unfolding. The porters took the case off to their luggage store and lo and behold they got in! No idea how - i was told they were unbreakable! But hey, drama over and everyone happy.

It had been a tiring day which ended with a delicious meal of very baby shrimp soup, whole fish with some kind of ketchup, some kind of rubbery fish and crunchy veg which the waiter didn't know what it was - turns out it was jellyfish! It was OK, looked like onion chutney. So after a wander it was off to bed for an early start of Tai Chi in the park. Cool.