Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing China

We spent the morning in Shanghai before leaving for Suzhou by bus in the afternoon. Our first stop was the YuYuan Garden. It is an excellent model of classical Chinese gardening architecture. It was built during the reign of the Ming Emperor Jiajing (1559). Before we arrived there though, we walked through by some great food vendors and a beautiful shopping area. The entire garden is walled in and the wall is topper by a very large dragon. After the garden, we went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. It has a very large model of the future Shanghai. For lunch, we had more Chinese food. The dishes are very good. We also had a quick stop at the Shanghai museum.

Suzhou is a water city. A city of canals; the Venice of China, but we didn’t get to see that part of town. We saw two or three canals, but not the “Venice” part . Some people were disappointed, but Nexus has our group on a schedule and they seem determined to keep us on it! Before we left Suzhou, Michael stopped at one of the little local alley roads and let us experience a very local area. The group loved it. We saw exotic foods, shops, local people, etc.

Our next city to visit was Wuxi. Our number one stop is the Lingering Garden, the third most beautiful garden in all of China (Summer Palace being the first). It was truly beautiful. Then we went to a silk factory. We saw how silk worms make silk! It was very cool. I learned a lot. It is really an amazing process, and silk is such a strong and beautiful and soft fabric.

We arrived in Nanjing in the evening, had another Chinese dinner, then we went to a night shopping area that was very bright and exciting. The next morning, we went to a fresh water pearl factory, Dr Sun Yat-Sen’s Mausoleum. We had a ride on a boat to see the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and had lunch at the Confusian Temple. After lunch, we had a very long bus ride to Hangzhou.

Every single day is an early start and late finish. Many of the group are very tired, but our spirit and enthusiasm is still very strong. We are seeing much more of China than we ever imagined. It truly has been an amazing experience.