Day trip out of Shanghai (and feeling rather brave too!)
We managed to get train tickets to Suzhou - an ancient city east of Shanghai. It is famous for its canals and gardens and also for silk production. The gardens are from the Ming dynasty and are very famous and beautiful, and the area is an UNESCO herritage site. The train was fast, clean, efficient and easy to use. Getting tickets was the hard part, but now we have figured it out we are planning more trips!
Evan at the huge Shanghai train station
The Suzhou garderns are famous - old, big and very good! We went to The Humble Administrator's Garden (not sure about the 'humble' bit - was anything but...). Our timing was good as the trees are beginning to blosom.
The city is also famous for its canals - China used to have an extensive system of canals for trade. They still remain in Suzhou and make it very pretty and picturesque.
We had green tea and dumplings at an old teahouse on one of the canals
View from the teahouse
Pagoda in Suzhou
Also been sight seeing some more in Shanghai - a poster museum displaying political posters from the 60's and 70's - in a basement hidden away in a block of residential flats .... as well as the Jing'An Temple in the center of Shanghai - surrounded by modern skyrise buildings.
Life and work is good - weather is starting to warm up now. 26 C yesterday. Next week is a national holiday - Tomb Sweeping Day so I'm sure we'll have some more news then!
Strange Things Carried on a Bike (a intermittent series)
We see many strange things on bikes. Thought we should share.
1. 8' long (1' wide) galvanized metal tubing
That's all for now.
