So the last couple of days in Shanghai have been an eye opener. I managed to get alot of sightseeing in and experience the vastly different culture that is China.

Day 2 started off nice and early with hotel breakfast where I met a couple of guys from Sweden, one of whom, Daniel I would catch up for a beer and sightseeing the next day.

The hotel booked my tickets to Suzhou and waved down a taxi for me. Rush hour is insane on the metro so taxi was alot easier. I got to the Shanghai Train Station (the big main one) and managed to find my train. Ended up booking the first class cabin and being only 1 of 2 people in the whole cabin!

Suzhou was a very different part of town with little english signs and no maps, which meant I had to grab one from the hawkers on the street who followed me for a few blocks, I didnt buy into the scam but she at least told me what bus to catch, which was nice.

First stop was The Lion Gardens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The garden was full of these crazy little Bonzai style trees, theres most likely a Chinese name for it, but I couldn’t read the signs.

After the Gardens I went for a walk to Pingjiang Road, a classical old style street with lots of food and crafty stuff, along with more hawkers.

Alot of Suzhou winds in and out of canels, I was told to do a river cruise but with it starting to rain and me not being able to find someone that wasn’t selling fake tickets I called it quits and went back to the train station.

After I took the high speed train back to Shanghai the night started to get interesting / insane.

I waiting for 2 hous for a taxi as there is only 2 taxi stands at the train station. Once I got a taxi I headed back to the hotel. It was poring with rain and the taxi was going fast, which leads to the logical conclusion of him smashing into the car in front of us. Sitting in the back of the taxi while the driver, the other driver and the police sort everything out without being spoken to was a test on temper thats for sure!! Ironically there are signs in the back that tell you to faster the seat belt that isn’t there.

The taxi eventually got going and dropped me off. He didn’t charge me (that fuck for that!) but he did nicely drop me off 6 blocks away from the hotel, in the rain. So wandering back to the hotel there was a well place makas, Double cheese burger combo and i’m going home. I did not need anymore excitement for that day!

 

I’ll write day 3-4 soon when I get more internet which seems to be a challenge.