China April 2019
Brodie’s next 15,000 klm
On th e road again
Blog page at issuu.com/janandkeithtravels
Incredible China
Gary and Kerry picked us up from home around 7am for our drive to Sydney, internal flights we thought were too expensive compared to the $599 China trip, The journey was fairly uneventful with a few stops at the various roadside Maccas and a snooze, arriving at the Meriton Mascot at about 3pm. The hotel room was a really nice 2 bedroom apartment with heaps of room, once settled in Kerry decided we should all walk to the Mascot shops and find a nice Italian meal ... my suggestion of Chinese was rubbished due to the forthcoming 10 days in China .. I thought we could start acclimatising earlier, instead I settled for a lovely pizza while the rest had food I couldn’t pronounce. The next day our flight was due at 1230pm so we left for the airport around 830am and began the typical airport procedure of hurry up and wait. The usual check in and security and the wait at the boarding gate. We were among the first to board ..well Gary, Kerry and Jan were! the computer refused my boarding pass and I was taken aside to sort the problem out, it seemed my visa wasn’t recognised and the other three faced the possibly of a trip without me ... was that cheering I heard?
Hurry up ana
a in 10 days for $599
ad wait!!
It seemed the check in chick hadn’t noted my visa number but once that was discovered a few clicks on the keyboard and I was joining the rest of them. THEN THEY HAD A FIRE WARNING IN THE CONTROL TOWER! There were no airport movements for the next hour while we sat on the plane watching movies, finally we were in there air. China Eastern was a full service airline so we received a couple of meals, saw some old movies and decided it wasn’t really their fault when we got to the hotel at 4am with a 8am wake up call for a 10am sight seeing departure.
Bill giving a talk on the way to the Forbidden City
Tiananmen Square like a huge car park with heaps of police
The Forbid
dden City
The bus took us to Tiananmen Square, which I would imaging would be very impressive at parade time, but today it was just full of tourists, police and a bitterly cold wind and with all talk of politics banned it was just like a huge car park in which we spent too long. Across the road lay the Forbidden City, much more interesting and after a few underpasses and a few queues we were wondering around a 700 year old city that has only been opened to the public in the last 40 years. It consists of may palaces and houses, a total of 9999 rooms, there is supposedly 10000 rooms in heaven and the emperor can not surpass the Gods. Most of the rooms are empty or ďŹ lled with replicas as most of the stu, 640,000 boxed, was shipped to Taiwan in 1949 due to the revolution.
Forbidden City
The Great Wall J
Jurong Valley
The next day we were up at 630am and down for breakfast before leaving the hotel at 8am for our next adventure,,,,,, The Great Wall. But first a visit to one of our sponsors, The Jade Factory, we were there for an hour or so, the girls drooling over some of the jewellery ..the boys shaking heads wondering who would pay those sort of prices ... not us poor pensioners that’s for sure. The section of the Great Wall in the Jurong Valley was only a short bus trip away and what a site, especially when we realised we had really steep stairs before we even got to the wall proper, Jan was already planning which coffee shop she would hide in, unfortunately for her the Chinese don’t really do coffee and they were all souvenir shops so she reluctancy joined us heading up the stairs. Jan and Gary decided the first guardhouse was good enough while Kerry and I thought the top of the mountain was not out of reach .... well that what we thought until after another couple of guard houses and many, many, steps, the top of the mountain seemed further away, so reluctantly we turned back ...secretly relieved... and joined the others haggling at the souvenir shops,
Haggling proved to much for one of group, we won’t mention any names Gary, paying 3 times more than others for a cap and don’t ask him how much his jacket was. Snack food wasn’t plentiful ... well not what I would call snack food ...I did find a sausage on a stick that needed extremely sharp teeth to bite into but very tasty when the effort was made.
A To
A rickshaw took us down to the tourist lake area a google photo as couldn’t find the ones we took
Next stop was a tour and lunch in the Hutongs ... 700 year old homes where up to 15 houses would share toilets and bathrooms. The meal was the normal fare of the village and quite tasty but I wasn’t sure what animal or maybe offal the it was cooked from. We were told that we would have a traditional music session after lunch but earlier they said there was a possibility of cricket fighting, as culturally sensitive as I am I preferred to see cricket fighting and asked for a change. it seems cricket fighting is a form of gambling and the crickets only fight in autumn (probably a mating thing) but they arranged to have a cricket master explain the sport, this was really entertaining and is now on my youtube channel.
The Cricket m
our of Beijing Hutongs
man
Snack food?
Jan just ďŹ nishing a toee fruit salad no one was prepared to try one until we started eating it and then the vendor quickly sold out to the rest of our group
Another 8am start this time with our bags and we were off to the Chinese Medicine Clinic,another sponsor, here we were given a introduction to the medicine and then a 15 minute foot massage, During the massage the doctor came around and took my pulse looked at my tongue and based on his findings decided I was fat and he could proscribe medicines..... I politely declined... Gary got told not only that he also was fat but he needed $400 a month worth of herbs to stay a live alive..... he figured he take his chances. Then it was off to see the pandas, which managed to stay just out of camera range or present their butt to the camera, but we were able to buy hot chips at the zoo bonus! Arriving at the airport a couple of hours later only to discover there is no plane so we are sitting around waiting for them to find one to take us to Shanghai
The view A plane finally turned up, and we were in the air, 90 mins later than expected. Nearly a 2 hour flight so we managed to watch half a movie and ate a meal, the tour company had over ridden our seat allocations, so instead of window seats the four of us shared the central four ... being a night time flight didn’t really matter but I guess will lose our window seats for the Sydney flight. Arriving at Shanghai it was once again hurry up and wait with one of the group, an 86 year old, being left at the baggage conveyor, after she was found it was a 2 hour bus trip to Suzhou. We arrived at the hotel about 9pm so it was off to bed. The tour guide, Celery, gave us a 7.30am departure time and a 6.30am wake up. Unfortunately the other 6 groups were given the same so it took us 15 mins waiting at for a lift as 200 odd people made their way down to breakfast. The breakfast room had seating for about half the 200 that wanted breakfast all at the same time, it was bedlam, people trying find seats or food, I managed a handful of chicken popcorn and a bit of toast but we had to share knife between 4 of us. The tour company could have easily staggered the bus departure times and we would all have had a pleasant breakfast. The first stop was to another of our “sponsors” where we sat through an hour long sales presentation of the benefit of buying silk .... it must have been successful to some as I noticed several, many thousand dollars packages being loaded on the bus ...... I found a chair and veged out.
w from the bus after leaving the hotel in Suzhou
Stretching a double cocoon in one piece over a mandrel. The double cocoon can’t be woven so it is used as stuďŹƒng. This area gave you a glimpse of silk spinning, the rest was just a shop.
The Linger Gar
Celery our
arden Suzhou
ur tour guide
The Grand C
The cruise was quite interesting and I did a video of t we were on the wrong side of the boat, the more inter do this cruise make sure you get on the portside of the
We disembarked at a market area and bought som best dumplings we had ever had.
When the waitress was giving me the dumplings s dumplings, I thought she meant they were hot so was they were full of sauce which immediately squirted a Kerry didn’t! We now both have jeans we can’t wear b
Canal Suzhou
the whole trip ..on my youtube channel.. unfortunately resting houses were on the left handside, so if you ever e boat.
me strange tasting lollies and cakes before having the
she made hand signs indicating something about the as very careful as a I bit into it. Unfortunately she meant all over me, Gary noticed in time before he bit his but before we wash dumplings out of them.
The foyer of the
A beautiful lunch finished, a quic at our new hotel in Wuxi. This w quality but didn’t have a bar s restaurant. The restaurant had a tried to serve warm beer .... as t to convince the waitress the be tried serving it in a wine glass have been OK) finally they got down.
After a pleasant evening with t promise of a late start in the mor
Jan decided at 10 to 6am it wa sleeping in, so showered shave a very non western style breakfa handful of chicken popcorn and more could you ask for!
e hotel at Wuxi
ck look at a temple and we were was a step up from last night in so the only alcohol was in the a very limited English menu and they had no English it took a bit eer should be cold ... they even with ice (I don’t drink ... it may cold beer and the table settled
the other travellers we had the ning so we could sleep in.
as time to get up, so much for d and packed we went down for ast, I know we are in China,so a d a bowl of rice porridge ... what
Lei L
Bags packed, onto the bus and off to see the sights of Wuxi, pronounced UC, first stop was to the Lei Lake. Lei lake is an offshoot of the 3rd largest fresh lake in China, the Taihu Lake, this was a good of example of China cleaning up its environment. Forty years ago the foreshore was pearl farms, fishing huts, shanties and general rubbish, it now a beautiful park where the locals can stroll, picnic etc. Our Wuxi guide, Shelly, gave a Tai Chi lesson, it gave both Gary and I a good laugh as we were the onlookers. Next stop was a visit to another “sponsor”,the pearl factory. While every other place we go has a time limit the sponsors sites, pearl factory, silk factory, Chinese traditional medicine and jade factory, the time limit was based when the last person stopped spending ... possibly some people got great bargains, I get kept my hands and wallet in my pocket ...until the pearl factory where Jan managed to pry the credit card out of my shaking hands and buy a loverly bracelet.
Start of an impromptu Ti Chi lesson
Lake
Pearl Factory presentation
The Bund ..river The Bund is the must see item of Shanghai, it is the original foreign port of the 1930s, where all the major foreign trading companies had their headquarters, so the riverbank is lined with these beautiful stone buildings looking across the river at the amazing modern skyline of the ďŹ nancial district of Shanghai. We were going to the E R A acrobatic show that night, so we took ourselves to Macdonalds for tea, Gary ordered ďŹ rst and totally failed in the point and mime translation ordering .. he ended up with more meals than you could poke a stick at and all the wrong drinks ,, I didn't get to order we just shared his.
rfront Shanghai
Celery, our guide, thought it was abit like herding cats with our group
On the bus returnin
ng from ERA Show
Shanghai
Our first full day in Shanghai, started with the least western breakfast so far, no chicken popcorn, but at least we found a table. All on the bus and off to the Shanghai museum, a beautiful building that housed about 4 facets of Chinese history ... currency, seals, ceramics, bronzes and a couple of other things. Jan and Kerry found the souvenier concession stands and museum store more interesting..... they did make great hot chocolate. Once our history appetite was satisfied, a visit to East Nanjing St, the major shopping mall of Shanghai, this had all the world wide brands but mostly dearer than Australia so not much shopping was done. Imagine two big floors of M&M’s, that right there was a huge shop just of M&m’s.
Not every floor caught Gary’s interest
Museum
East Nan The main shopping
njing St g mall of Shanghai
Most of the pocket watc price they a face cream, bargain the tins for free ignoring the of shops the they found t
At another decided to t go below 25
The market area surrounding the Yu Gardens
e shops had the same stuff but varying prices, Gary bought a ch and using his finely honed bargaining skills he paid the first asked.... turned out to be a bargain. Jan and Kerry decided to buy , the first shop they tried it was 10rmb a tin, when pushed for a ey were offered 1 tin free if they bought 5, when they tried for two e the guy looked at them in disgust and ducked below the counter em, it seems two free tins was out of the question. The next couple e tins were 20 rmb and no one would go lower than 15 rmb, finally the same offer as the very first so they took that.
shop I saw the same watch that Gary had bought earlier and try my skills, they started a 50rmb and despite my efforts wouldn’t 5 so I walked away reluctancy admitting Gary got the better deal
The Shanghai waterfront at night
The final stop was the river cruise to see the lights of Shanghai, a very popular pastime which meant hundreds of people lining up to board the cruise boats, it probably took about 3/4 of an hour but, by heading straight for the lower deck we managed to get a window seat. The way the buildings were lit was really impressive except the idiot boat operators wouldn’t turn the internal lights out so it was almost impossible to get a photo without reflections .... and then back to the hotel.
The Shanghai waterfront at night
The Shanghai waterfront at night
The Shanghai waterfront at night
The Shanghai waterfront at night
The Mag Lev Train
We had been on the Maglev before but were really surprised by the crowds, well there were 4 busloads of tours, when we went on it in 2014 there was only a handful of people using it. The Maglev didn’t disappoint acceleration to 431kph in no time at all and then the breaking of the sound barrier as the returning Maglev went past with a ash and a bang. ..we did the return journey so everyone got a window seat... all up the whole trip was about 30 minutes.
Hang
This was our last day, we managed to stu everything into the suitcases and on to the bus, we had a pleasant trip on the West Lake, after negotiating with a restaurant for lunch so we could park the bus somewhere. They charged 40 rmb each (about $8) and this included 5 or 6 dishes and beer and coke...bargain!
gshou
The Tea pl
There was always a dumb question that someone would ask Celery and she still kept her patience.
lantation
Some of Ja favouri
an and Kerry’s ite places
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