From Shanghai we took the train to the town of Hangzhou, it is built on a lake with lots of green areas and manmade causeways across the lake. This is the kind of place where you get all the whimsical poetic names, on our first day we took a boat to the island of 'three pools mirroring the moon' - one of the pool contained huge coy carp that were being fed popcorn - while wandering around the island we happened across a sign reading 'bamboo lined path leading to serenity'.
In between relaxing and chilling out, we hired bikes and spent a day braving the traffic to cycle around the lake and across the causeways. We also headed out to the famous tea village of Longjing and cycled through the tea plantations.
From Hangzhou we got the bus to our final China stop of Suzhou, another town built on water but this time canals, so we spent some days exploring the canals, side streets and markets. The food experimentation has continued with freshly caught 'hairy crab' served whole (we watched the locals to see how to eat it), octopus on a stick, and lots of other delicious street food.
The whole population seems to be able to say "hello", and most do so at every opportunity, some even wanting their photos taken with us. So to enhance the minor feeling of celebrity we had a day of modelling, wearing various outfits and hitting the streets with our entourage of photographer, assistant and translator to create some catalogue poses. We rounded off the day with some red wine and live music, although it did threaten to turn a bit Karaoke, with some poeple making requests to sing themselves. The singer, who we had spoken to earlier, even offered me the mike to serenade Vicky, memories of the National Anthem came flooding back and I politely declined. A fun day.
Next stop South Korea.
