Before I go further, lets get this straight, Suzhou bought no warmer weather.

Tuesday. 24th November

The train from Xi’an was an interesting experience. The train station was busy with many policemen wondering around. Frank, the babe of a tour guide (genuinely – what a nice guy) informed us that the station was often subject to terrorist attacks and stabbings. Good start to the long journey!

We sat in a dingy waiting room to wait for our train. We were very early so got some seats but it very quickly filled up with the loud locals. When the train finally arrived there was a mad rush together on which seemed extreme until not much sooner after we were on the train with our bags, the train began to pull off and start its ~800 mile journey to Suzhou.

To put it nicely, the train was cosy. We had 6 beds in two, three bed high bunks in the cabin. Joined with all our luggage, breathing space was limited – but it’s all part of the adventure hey?

Train left around 8pm and lights out at 9:30pm. I lay down to read but was convinced I felt travel sick so forced myself to sleep. By 2am I was wide awake listening to the trains honk at each other as they passed. SO LOUD.

Eventually it was 8am and time to get up as we assumed we would be arriving at 9. We assumed wrong. Franky boy came to tell us we had slowed down due to the snow so we wouldn’t get in until half 11. I was bored of this train now so went back to sleep.

The upside to the train was that the toilet wasn’t as bad as it could have been – it didn’t smell great but it appeared clean. I also scored a bottom bunk so no climbing for me. Life could be worse.

We finally arrived in Suzhou. It was cold. We went to the Garden of the Master of the Nets which is considered to be one of Suzhou’s best preserved gardens. It was laid down in the 12th century and was left to die but was restored in the 18th century as part of the home of a fisherman (hence the name). It’s very pretty but given it was so cold, it was hard to enjoy the outdoor space so many of us headed back to the hotel after the garden for a decent sleep after last nights journey.

   
 

Thursday.

We caught an early bullet train to Shanghai. Top speed hit was 297km/h. I however was less speedy in taking a photo to show the speed!

We arrived into Shanghai to sunshine and blue skies. We checked in and went for a walk down the Bund for our first sight of the Shanghai skyline.

We had bought tickets to an evening acrobat show at the Shanghai Circus World which did not disappoint. The metro there was an experience – China in rush hour is crazy! Acrobat show was amazing though. Who mine you could fit 8 motorbikes into a caged sphere?

 
 


Friday. 

Last day with the group. We walked back down the bund to the Yuyuan Gardens which were large markets that sold souvenirs and various bits of tat. It’s all in a nice setting though.

 After a local lunch at Maccies, Lindsay, Hayley and I headed to the Shanghai Museum which is a large museum of ancient Chinese art. It was interesting but I’m glad it was free.

  
We then decided to head to an observatory tower. Given that we couldn’t access wifi we just guessed which metro station it was likely to be near. How wrong we were. Given that we didn’t know the name of the tower we wanted – just that it was known locally as the “bottle opener”, I couldn’t even attempt to find it on google maps. It is one of the tallest buildings in Shanghai, so you can imagine our surprise when we could no longer see it when we left the metro. Absolute mare. We guessed which way to walk and headed over. An hour or so later we finally arrived. Whilst writing this I have since learnt it was actually only a twenty minute walk – just shows you need to research where you are going first!!

We went all the way to the 100th floor at 474m high. It’s the tenth tallest building in the world and since we were fortunate to a clear day, the views across Shanghai were spectacular!

Dinner was the last supper. Last meal on tour. We all decided to get a taxi, which required 3 different taxis, and naturally, the three were taken at different times as they were hard to flag down and we all got dropped at different locations. However we did finally make it which was the best part of a miracle! After dinner a few of us walked back down the bund to see the skyline at night.

  
We made a detour via a bar for a well earned drink to celebrate a good week.

Saturday. 

I had a final day in Shanghai by myself. I took myself off early to the Yuz Museum to see a new art installation called the RainRoom. It was a large room where 1800 litres of water fall from the ceiling every minute and yet you can walk through without getting wet.

It was amazing. It is all done through motion sensors and 3D cameras. The rest of the museum wasn’t hugely exciting but the rain room was well worth a visit.

I headed to the French concession for some lunch and a general wander round the area. Back then the hotel for an early night as I’d decided to brave the metro to the airport at 6am.