Day 41 We eventually decided a route to Shanghai and what the best transport would be which proved difficult simply because there was so much choice. A bus to Suzhuo was the first stop so off to the station we headed and got our tickets no problem arriving in Suzhuo around mid afternoon. Once we arrived we noticed a train ticket booking office just opposite so tried to book our tickets right through to Hong Kong but she didn't speak a word of English and just wrote the same thing down in Chinese repeatedly. So getting nowhere we gave up and got the bus to the hostel. The receptionist told us that it isn't possible to get a train direct to Hong Kong any more and that we must get a train to Shenzhen and then make our way from there which works out to be only 40 mins on the metro. We grabbed some food from a cafe and managed to find another ticket office where we were a lot more successful and got all the tickets we needed for the rest of China. Eve manage to scout out the local Dicos for an Ice Cream and we found the old streets. Suzhuo is nicknamed 'Venice of the East', until now we had no idea why, so far only witnessing the typical Chinese mass-construction of skyscrapers that sat above the filled in canals, but this part of the town was gorgeous. Only a small area remained but you can easily immerse yourself in the past. We walked the full length of the canal and then as we walked back it became dark and all the surrounding buildings and bridges were lit up making it nicer still. We got back quite early so picked a DVD from the hostels huge collection- Shutter Island, and settled for the night with a beer and some sweets.

Day 42 Suzhuo is famed for its spectacular gardens and the area is full of them however most are quite expensive. We managed to find a cheap one called 'Couples Garden Retreat' which was very fitting and spent the morning there. It was quite small and only housed several buildings most of which were empty or closed but the rest of the gardens were lovely. There was a small pond with bridges and pavilions and we found a nice bench to take photos and relax for a while. Then just as we were catching up with our thoughts we had to go and get our bags from the hostel and head for the bus station. We got here for 1.40 and were told the next bus at 2.30 only had one seat left so had to get tickets for the 5.20 one. Slightly annoyed we bought them and waited but when the 2.30 bus was being called for we noticed not many people seemed to board it so when the woman called again we thought we would try our luck. Somehow we managed to find ourselves on the 2.30 bus and were on our way. We arrived in Nanjing around 6ish and had yet more bother with the public buses, this time boarding the Argos 1 instead of the 1, we should have learnt our lesson but we love an adventure. After finally getting to the right stop we stopped for dinner, I ended up with noodles and ....... what can only be described as animal parts and organs, Eve then insisted on beef only and got a better deal to say the least. Another lesson learnt- don't point and ask for whatever he/she's having!