Category Archives: Shanghai to London

We had had an absolutely fantastic time in Australia catching up with friends and family, but in a way without anywhere to live and no jobs etc I felt we were still on the move a bit. The hospitality of everyone who put us up/ put up with us was brilliant! So good, that weContinue reading “Hong Kong, let the excitement begin!”

I looked out the window as we were approaching Shanghai and thought wow we have a layer of cloud to get through while landing. It took me a while to realize that it was smog. We were closer to the ground than I thought and if you looked really closely you could see shapes ofContinue reading “Arrival in Shanghai!”

I think the general excitement and shock of our arrival in China caught up with us a bit this morning and we both struggled to wake and felt a little lethargic. Still we had so much more we wanted to see in Shanghai. We decided not to rush it too much and simply stay hereContinue reading “Wandering around Shanghai”

We had read that the Yuyuan Gardens were a must see but they get very crowded on a weekend. So we went Monday morning thinking that it would be quiet, especially with the slightly overcast weather.  It wasn’t. The streets around the gardens were chokers full of people and lined with souvenir stalls, people sellingContinue reading “Yuyuan Gardens and more of Shanghai”

I didn’t quite know what to expect from Shanghai before we left but we absolutely loved the place from arrival. It actually made it on the list of cities we could live in. We prefer it to Hong Kong as it seems more oriental yet still user friendly for Westerners.   I know a fewContinue reading “Sarah’s Shanghai Thoughts”

First time catching a train in China and really when you think about it catching public transportation shouldn’t be too difficult. It wasn’t. The station was absolutely massive though and it took us a while to navigate around but we were soon on the train and soon speeding our way to Suzhou. 85km in 30minsContinue reading “Train to Suzhou”

We woke to more rain. But fortunately it’s not heavy just a constant mist. Our plan for today was more gardens but on the way we walked down Pingjang Lu street right next to one of the canals. It’s a pretty famous street in Suzhou and is lined with restaurants, food stalls and silk shops.Continue reading “Day 2 in Suzhou”

It had been absolutely wonderful wandering around the gardens and streets of Suzhou but we had to keep moving as China is such a huge place to travel around. Today was going to be the first bus experience in China and it started off pretty easily as our host booked our tickets using her smartphoneContinue reading “Suzhou to Hangzhou…First Chinese Bus!”

Our plan today was to walk all the way around the lake. Ambitious but doable. But first we had to go and buy our train tickets for the next part of our trip the next day. We discovered that there was a train ticket sales office in town so we walked there and using photosContinue reading “West Lake”

We had had a bit of a reshuffle in our plans as we had planned to go to Huangshan mountain but due to the G20 summit most residents in Hangzhou had been given the week off and by most reports many of the 6 million had gone to Huangshan mountain! We thought that the numbersContinue reading “Hangzhou to Zhangjiajie…that’s easy for you to say!”