Suzhou

Today the group went on a day trip to the canal city of Suzhou. Wayne, Logan and I woke up early to brave the Shanghai Railway Station to get tickets for everyone. We stood in the endless lines at the ticket counter for English speakers (Wayne was a bit nervous) and annoyed everyone behind us as we plopped 14 passports onto the counter. I finally felt what it was like to be one of 25 Million when, after we purchased the tickets, we were trying to rendezvous with the rest of the group and having very little success. I was parked in the middle of the courtyard staring at endless floods of people, waiting for 8 dazed and confused Wahoos to emerge from the bowels of the Shanghai metro.

We finally found the main part of the group and then met up with Dreddy, Joe and Kevin as they raced from their fittings in the fabric district. We took the train to Suzhou and then hiked from the station into the center of town. Suzhou is known as the "Venice of the East" because it is the most famous canal city in Asia. Any comparisons to Venice are a bit misguided however, but Suzhou still carries its own charm.

Our first stop was to climb the North Temple Pagoda (Bao'n Temple) - up 10 stories and many stairs to get remarkable views of Suzhou. We saw an interesting contrast between the peaceful greenery of the temple complex and its pagodas, and the endless rows of the same white house over and over below us. We descended from the temple and then headed toward the canal areas. On the way we stopped for some delicious (and really cheap) lunch and then went to the Suzhou museum and looked at old Chinese artifacts from several dynasties.

After the museum we walked around a bit around the very small canal zone and then took a trip on a covered group gondola, enjoying the singing of our gondolier near the end. Suzhou is DEFINITELY not Venice, but it was definitely worth a visit! We walked back to the train station after the gondola trip and then took the 25 minute train back into Shanghai. Tonight about half of the group is recovering from some Chinese belly troubles and the other half is going out on the town.

We're excited to have one more day in Shanghai but are really looking forward to heading home and seeing our families and friends.

Thanks for reading, everyone: Swopes, Dreyzehners, Facklers, Svirnovskiys and everyone else!