Sofitel Shanghai Sheshan Oriental

The weekend after Grandma and Papa left, we headed to the Sofitel Shanghai Sheshan Oriental for a little getaway, close to home, but another world away. The hotel is 25 minutes from Shanghai city, but another world away completely.

We arrived after spending way too long on the train and metro (do as we did not: get a taxi from Hongqiao Railway station instead of the metro – it will cost an extra 70RMB but will save an hour) but we were still earlier than our scheduled check in time and our check in took about fifteen minutes. Because of this (?) we got upgraded to a room on the sixth floor, a perk of which was the exclusive lounge we had access to, which provided free pre-dinner drinks and snacks and free breakfasts.

The main reason we went to this hotel, however, was for this:
Beachiness! We spent three days soaking up the (sometimes elusive) sun by the pool and playing in the sand.


We also wandered around the gorgeous grounds of the sprawling hotel. But mostly, we just played in the water:

And finally…

Our month with Mum/Frances/Grandma and Dad/Richard/Papa finally came to an end. We said our farewells here in Suzhou and they got in a car and headed to Shanghai and their flight home. We came back to the house feeling a little melancholy – but had several thousand photos and dozens of short videos to look back over and remind us of a wonderful month. The best part for us was seeing Arlo interact and adore her grandparents. And now we can’t wait until we see ALL the family again at Christmas!

The Humble Administrator’s Garden again

We visited the Humble Administrator’s Garden not long after Richard and Frances first arrived. They loved it and said they wanted to come back just before they left to see the changes over the course of the month. There were lots of blossoms on the trees during the first visit, but few leaves had come out. When we went back the second time, the blossoms were all gone but the leaves had formed, completely transforming the garden.

I didn’t take many pictures, but mum has more on her blog and now so does dad.

Spent blossoms in a pond.

Peonies.

Creek/pond running through the garden.
 Deciding she’d had enough, so waving goodbye.

Tongli (for the third time)

The day after Richard and Frances returned from Yangshuo we dragged them to Tongli, a canal village about 40 kilometres outside of Suzhou.

It was another busy day in Tongli (as it always is when we visit there), but not as crowded as it has been in the past. Geoff and I have been to Tongli three times now and each time we see things we hadn’t seen before. That said, with the next guests (arriving in about eight weeks) we think we’ll try some other water villages that we haven’t been to yet.

This guy is making some kind of candy – not pulling noodles as we always thought whenever we saw him in the past. We later saw him smoking in his shop, not two metres away from the food – ah, China!

One of the gardens in Tongli. (Taken by Frances)

Love this shot. Almost looks posed, but it’s not. (Taken by Richard)
 Love these pics of my folks. I can never get pictures of them this relaxed at home, even though they were probably exhausted here after such a busy week in Yangshuo.

Leaves. (Taken by Richard)

Taking pictures of cormorants during lunch.

Smiling while we wait for lunch to arrive.

Food vendors. (Taken by Richard)

One of the many canals that run through the town.

A man and his cormorants. This picture was taken while the birds were catching fish for him. They’d dive down, catch a fish, the fisherman would haul the bird back onto the boat using a bamboo pole. He’d then get the fish out of the bird’s mouth (they have a string tied around their throat so they can’t swallow the fish) and throw the fish into a bucket on the boat and the bird back into the water, or onto a pole to rest. I heard somewhere (some documentary a long time ago) that the birds can count and they won’t go back in the water if they don’t get to eat every seventh fish.

Everything is done in the canals, from washing clothes and dishes – to washing dinner…!!
 Old man. (Taken by Richard)

Selling stinky tofu (among other things).

Tailor at work.

Girls dolled up for a photo shoot.
 An old lady selling shoes in an alleyway.

Richard and Frances visit Yangshuo

One of the things that Richard and Frances insisted upon doing while in China was to visit Yangshuo, near Guilin in Guangxi Province in southern China. It’s the land of the karst mountains that rise up out of the flat floodplains of the Li River. We had been there about a year ago and blogged about it here, here, here, here and here. I have no doubt that mum will blog about it at some stage on her own blog – she’s already started blogging about their China stay here, here and here (and just keep reading her blog to see more). So why am I writing about their trip to Yangshuo when they can write about it themselves? Two reasons. The types of pictures we tend to post on our blogs are very different, so we probably won’t post many of the same pictures, even though I’m taking the liberty of using Mum and Dad’s photos here (hey, I wasn’t there). And I want to take the opportunity to give Gary and Sophia’s business another plug because they treated Mum and Dad so fabulously and they just had the best time ever (if Arlo wasn’t here when they came back I think the rest of their China stay after Yangshuo would have been pretty boring for them). Gary and Sophia operate WinWin Travels and will tailor a trip to your specifications. We thought Mum and Dad would have a relaxing time in the countryside like we did a year ago but they were with Sophia every day, seeing something new and experiencing things they never would have anywhere else.

Perhaps Mum can caption these photos – I’m just posting them because they’re just a selection of the thousands of photos they took that I love!
View of the Yulong River from their hotel room (Yangshuo Mountain Retreat)Cormorant fishing at nightBuffalo on the banks of the Li RiverBuffalo on the banks of the Li River (again)Yarn in a small market in a village on the Li RiverFresh food in the market.A new form of cooking. I decided not to post the picture Dad took of the (dead) dog being prepared for butchering – it made even me feel a bit queasy.Fowl.The light and water show they run twice each night – it has a cast of thousands (I think) and 10 000 people go to watch each performance.Cumquat treesLaughter while picking cumquatsRice paddies below and cumquats in the hillsIn the tea plantation – picking tea leavesA view of the Li River and the karst mountains.Making dumplings with Gary and Sophia’s family.Smiles at Gary and Sophia’s home.Reading to Gary and Sophia’s girlsThe garage/restaurant where Mum and Dad had a memorable meal.The dish bony chicken (head, feet and all).

Now go over to Mum’s blog to see what she has to say about it all…

And … DAD’S NOW GOT A BLOG AS WELL! Check his thoughts on China here!

Xian – the last

I thought all Chinese people knew how to fly kites.


Clearly, I was wrong.

That’s all from Xian – more posts from Suzhou and surrounds soon!!

Xian – The Old Town and City Wall

Xian is a rare Chinese city in that the entire ancient city wall is still intact (or restored) and you can walk the entire length of it. It takes several hours to do that so we didn’t, though we spent a long time up on that wall (much of it looking for a damn way out!!). We also took in the Drum Tower, the Bell Tower, which we timed to coincide with one of their 15 minute musical/dancing performances, and other back streets of the Old Town.










Gotta appreciate minimally invasive…!!