29. Heaven on earth.

NYE in Shanghai

The school calendar took three days off for the New Year. Well you say that, the poor kids had to do catch up for the days missed by coming in on the weekend. To make matters worse, someone must have left the windows open over the mini break as you could honestly see your breath in the classroom it was that cold.

Needless to say NYE was celebrated quite hard, a fellow teacher, Alicia seen in the dragon costume below came up with the idea of a onesie night out. Pandas, a giraffe, a cheetah, a monkey,a lion and a few Disney characters all painted the city red on a memorable night.

A few days earlier I'd with friend put together some kind of holiday plan for the break starting early 1 January. During the NYE night out, I got a text asking if I'd be fresh for the morrow, ‘Fresh as a daisy’ was the reply. 

Sunglasses on after perhaps an hour of sleep, we convened at the main station and bought our tickets to the nearby Suzhou which is regarded as the Venice of the East. 

Suzhou

Hounded upon arrival, then gasping at the overly long queue for the taxi rank and then get properly squeezed onto the jam-packed bus into town. Holidaying is tough. It was quite cold outside, however the bus that we got into was sticky hot with the amount of people on it. Our scarcely planned plan hadn’t given the Chinese holiday much consideration as we arrived in peak time. Mistake.

My instincts told me to get off the bus. So we did, to then be engulfed in the tidal wave of people on the main street in Suzhou.

Finally made it to some back streets and regained that precious commodity: personal space.

Suzhou famed for its gardens, silk trade, but also rather strikingly for its beautiful women. Hence as we got going from the back streets we headed for the things lads like us crave for some gorgeous looking gardens.

Decided upon going to a garden before hitting up the hostel I had a flyer for, which I envisaged rocking up at later. The site I had my mind on was the Garden of the Nets. Upon arrival, it was beautifully quiet as a hidden back street marked the entrance to this quite heralded Suzhou site.

The Garden was serene, intimate. There was no grass so it was hard to describe it as a garden in England terms. This was rather a mans (or rather fisherman's) vision to make pure serenity.


Despite saying all this it would have been a great garden to play 40:40.


Darren ended up doing a sketch.

An hour later, and are relaxed selves were hit with the anguish that we might not have a place to sleep tonight as the hostel on the flyer was fully booked. Oh dear Wessely oh dear, not phoning ahead was another error and I was really racking them up.

No need to fear though. With a scribbled address of the next hostel in hand (obtained from next doors also full hotel's free internet) and a confirmation that they had a place for us to sleep tonight that wasn’t the dog basket we touted a helpful biker who said he’d take us there. 

Mistake number three. I was on fire.

No it wasn't the continuous honking the man gave at every passing beautiful women, remember Suzhou is teeming with them, more we were miles from anywhere. Rogue men on bikes will sometimes drop you and leave you. Therefore the English tourist card came out. With my shaky Mandurin that may have insulted someone’s mother in another province I asked for directions. A group of students came to our aid.

Students. With that title in England you could very easily get away with being a raving alcoholic. However here this bunch of fine examples to their country, asked every passer by, called people, in their quest to take us to this hostel. My best memory was when they would gather around someone’s phone's map, with the no idea of public space they were like penguins.

I’ve got to say we hit the jack pot. They took us to a street which was the most spectacular that I’ve ever seen in my whole entire life. Red lanterns lit up, a long medieval road with street sellers on either side, it was what I envisaged China to be like.

In our pleasant surroundings, we settled in and had an enjoyable night, experimenting with the local cuisine, people surrounded our table in anticipation at what we would order and then we ended up being the last  out after a spot of  karaoke with the bar staff (karaoke is a big deal here- Elton John went down well-ish).

We spent the next morning feeling utterly awed as we walked round ‘one of China’s top 4 gardens’. It was much bigger than yesterdays and I think my Mum would have loved them. I half took an extra photo for her sake.

We then got a train for Hangzhou in the afternoon.

Hangzhou

If Suzhou is a river city with lots of canals, then Hangzhou is a lake city with lots of err bikes. The city worships the wondrous West Lake, the main hub of the city seemed to sit to the east of the great water feature.

We spent the evening settling into the great hostel dorm, then amazed at the length of the queue for a seat at Grandmas restaurant I’d be recommended and then went to a arcade to race cars and kill aliens.

Cycled the lake in the morning, we got these bicycles with a basket, a bit feminine but the seat was comfy. We’d spent the rest of our money on the deposit for the bikes so had no money to go into any temples, padogas or teahouses but we did stop to see some of the gardens –something which was becoming more and more of a pastime of mine- and took lots of pictures. 

Upon being handed our money back (fortunate as my bikes number plate snapped), we got some bakery goods and enjoyed our last few moments on holiday before walking to the station.

The Chinese have a saying 'Heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below'. 

Likening a place to heaven is pretty much the best thing you could say about a place. I feel a better judgement would be had when I've seen more of China. 

Both cities were quite built up in parts, which is natural given Shanghai's nearby influence and both are easy week-end destinations. What was funny was a Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi and Mercedes Benz car showroom all on the same road in Hangzhou.  No room for the Fiat Punto though. It kind of exemplified China's wealth and Hangzhou as a holiday home venue.

Still both places were incredibly easy to travel to and around, we ended up not taking one taxi which was nice, and the beautiful cities provided me with some pictures of the China that you first envisage before coming here.