We left about 8:30 to catch the bus to Shanghai station to go to Suzhou for the day.We breezed in to the right queue (where they spoke English) but our first problem was the earliest train we could get was 10:25 and the next problem was the earliest back was 19:45.That pretty much fixed our day. We filled in the time waiting for the train with breakfast.The train was another hi speed one - 200 kph.We didn't realise but we had 1st class tickets so it was very c...

We had planned aneasy day today.After breakfast, we packed up to leave Hangzhou and got a cab to the station.It was really easy getting a ticket and we were onto a very smart train to Shanghai.It only took about 90 minutes going at over a 100 mph - the fastest train we have been on all trip since the Eurostar. We arrived in Shanghai at the south station,miles from anywhere.It needed a long tube ride to get us into the centre and our hotel.After being in the la...

The train journey to Hangzhou was good - a new train and quite quick - so quick that we could have done with it taking a couple of hours more to catch up on sleep. We ran the gauntlet of rapacious taxi drivers and eventually persuaded one to take us to the hotel arriving at 7:30.a.m. It was in a quiet street just off West Lake - Hangzhou's main attraction. The place was next to a school and all the kids were flocking in for their pre-school activities. One of the...

We woke up next morning with the ship berthed downstream of the dam but not being able to see it in the mist. It was a quick breakfast then off to the dam site (Fran complaining she never gets a moment on the cruise - I'm obviously too easy going as tour leader). After 2 sets of security, one of which I got into trouble for bringing my Swiss army knife (what did they think I was going to do, scrape the dam away with it??), wearrived at the dam site. Unfortunately...

We awoke to 5 star luxury which started with a good breakfast. Most of the people on the ship are on guided tours of China - we were in the misfits group which consisted of 6 Germans and 2 Australians. We were lucky - this table probably had the lowest average age of the whole ship. The first day on the cruise was a bit slow - some interesting lectures on the gorges and the dam project and a quick primer in mandarin. The afternoon was a tour excursion to the ghos...