Monday, 9 November 2015
Sunday, 8 November 2015
Shanghai (1st November 2015)
Last day of the tour. Tomorrow we fly away home.
In thetourist fleecing pen silk shop.
And Shanghai delivers rain.
View from the Bund, in the rain.
In Xintiandi (Jackie Chan's turf), in the rain.
In the
And Shanghai delivers rain.
Shanghai (31st October 2015)
Bus trip to Shanghai: uneventful.
Shanghai Museum: impressive.
It has a collection of pottery and other artifacts that go back to about 6000 BCE. But the really old ones are not so photogenic.
And then I tried to take the cheese out of the mouse trap.
This IS my happy face.
What exactly are we smoking?
Hello, ladies, look at your man, now back to me, now back at your man...
No matter how scary I look, she still hangs her earrings on me at night.
It's not a competition, but if it was I'd totally be winning.
Moo?
Boo!
China went through a goth phase:
After lunch it was tall buildings and fast trains.
We went up 88 floors in 45 seconds.
It's hollow. You can look down the inside to the hotel lobby.
Then we took a trip to the airport and back on the maglev train, peaking at 431 km/h.
Shanghai gets much prettier at night, but my phone camera doesn't do it justice.
Shanghai Museum: impressive.
It has a collection of pottery and other artifacts that go back to about 6000 BCE. But the really old ones are not so photogenic.
China went through a goth phase:
After lunch it was tall buildings and fast trains.
We went up 88 floors in 45 seconds.
It's hollow. You can look down the inside to the hotel lobby.
Then we took a trip to the airport and back on the maglev train, peaking at 431 km/h.
Shanghai gets much prettier at night, but my phone camera doesn't do it justice.
Suzhou (30th October 2015)
Suzhou is the Venice of the Orient. (Although Suzhou is land with water through it, whereas Venice is water with a few bit of land in it.)
It is home to several oriental gardens. Here's a glimpse of the garden of the Master of Nets. It seemed to me to be a large area made up of equal parts garden and house - sometimes garden courtyards surrounded by buildings, sometimes rooms surrounded by garden.
We visited the Humble Administrator's Garden, a UNESCO world heritage site. That was about 5 hectares of mostly garden (plants and ponds and streams) with some buildings and dividing walls.
It is home to several oriental gardens. Here's a glimpse of the garden of the Master of Nets. It seemed to me to be a large area made up of equal parts garden and house - sometimes garden courtyards surrounded by buildings, sometimes rooms surrounded by garden.
We visited the Humble Administrator's Garden, a UNESCO world heritage site. That was about 5 hectares of mostly garden (plants and ponds and streams) with some buildings and dividing walls.
Hangzhou to Suzhou (29th October 2015)
The morning was wet, so rather than browse all up and down the shops, we wandered around the gallery of a bronze artist (I think responsible for the Hall of the Five Hundred Arhats).
Then followed an uneventful bus drive to Suzhou.
Then followed an uneventful bus drive to Suzhou.
Hangzhou (28th October 2015)
Hangzhou could have been a stunning city, if not for the haze. We had a cruise on West Lake and a short walk through the streets and gardens.
We visited Lingyin Temple. I'm told it means "Inspired Seclusion". Hold on. Let's examine that.
Secluded: adj. not seen or visited by many people; sheltered and private.
Okay. Maybe it's just inspired.
These bronze statues were fascinating. So much work.They called this the Hall of the Five Hundred Arhats.
After a decidedly lack-luster lunch we visited a tea farm for a tea tasting. Sounded good till they put us all in a room, closed the doors, and served up the green tea hard sell infomercial, complete with all the woo-based claims about the health benefits of green tea and a bogus "detoxing" experiment with iodine, rice and hot water. (At least this web example has a control. In the experiment we saw, there was no control -- she poured out the black water and simply added green tea.)
Needless to say, it was more than the green tea that left a bad taste in my mouth.
Late afternoon: YAP (Yet Another Pagoda.) This time, the Liuhe Pagoda, or the Six Harmonies Pagoda.
I decided not to ascend this lighthouse. Instead I wandered up through the gardens behind and looked at the mini pagodas and statues.
No, he's not showing his tea drinking posture, he's practising his shadow puppetry.
We visited Lingyin Temple. I'm told it means "Inspired Seclusion". Hold on. Let's examine that.
Secluded: adj. not seen or visited by many people; sheltered and private.
Okay. Maybe it's just inspired.
These bronze statues were fascinating. So much work.They called this the Hall of the Five Hundred Arhats.
After a decidedly lack-luster lunch we visited a tea farm for a tea tasting. Sounded good till they put us all in a room, closed the doors, and served up the green tea hard sell infomercial, complete with all the woo-based claims about the health benefits of green tea and a bogus "detoxing" experiment with iodine, rice and hot water. (At least this web example has a control. In the experiment we saw, there was no control -- she poured out the black water and simply added green tea.)
Needless to say, it was more than the green tea that left a bad taste in my mouth.
Late afternoon: YAP (Yet Another Pagoda.) This time, the Liuhe Pagoda, or the Six Harmonies Pagoda.
I decided not to ascend this lighthouse. Instead I wandered up through the gardens behind and looked at the mini pagodas and statues.
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