China-First Impressions.

The second flight of the trip, to China, was short and painless even for me and to our relief we were met by a driver and our first surprise, the drive into Shanghai. For fifty minutes we cruised by towering estates (each section, housing thousands, built of exactly the same buildings), always seeing higher buildings in the distance....we had no idea how large Shanghai had become...no small trading port but city of 23 million people. And most of the trip we were on elevated roads at roof level having to circle three times to descend to ground, it was like a helter skelter...

And the noise...everyone uses the horn and when you see the six lanes of traffic that includes cars, buses, mopeds( loaded with more than we would put in a small van) bicycles, rickshaws and pedestrians with no lane discipline or priority, meeting at crossroads... The pavement is no safer as the only vehicle we have not seen driving along the pavement are the buses.... We are growing eyes in the back of our heads.

We managed to meet an ex-colleague of Catherine's, Mike, who is working in Shanghai for a few months and had a great evening with him as a guide not only to the city centre but to the food. After our first Chinese meal in China, we strolled along the Bund, which at night is a light show not to be missed, and looked at the old Colonial buildings which include a small Big Ben with remarkable chimes.

And the next surprise was bumping into an old colleague of mine from the Fire Service, now retired, and his wife. Roy Rowe....what are the chances of that half way across the world, in a city this large and a street so busy. Great fun.

In the morning we met our guide for the day, Ben, and saw the Bund in the daytime, walked on glass floors about 270m above the ground, played at being Spider-Man, visited a silk factory, very interesting and learnt how to make proper Chinese tea. Soup dumplings for lunch - a Shanghai speciality that tasted much better than they sound followed by a walk round a Pet Market which unfortunately turned out to be birds in tiny cages and insects in small boxes ( they are used to fight each other ) - no cats or dogs and really not our idea of an after lunch activity but we coped! The day was rounded off by a fantastic acrobatic show - combining traditional and modern - that had us on the edge of our seats the whole evening...we strolled home after dinner at a Japanese (!!! ) restaurant still buzzing from the show.

Lazy day next with a stroll through the public park and visit to the Jade Buddha Temple, largest Buddha in China, (you may think it's gold from the photo but that was just another Buddha - no photos allowed of the jade one!!) - interesting but the temples are beginning to look very similar.

On our first train in China....it reached 288km/h. You can tell as they give you the read out on a screen in the carriage. Very smooth and comfortable ride to Suzhou, the Venice of the East....however from our hotel location it looked more like building work capital of the East and little water, except in the trenches to be seen.....

We took a little stroll and enjoyed poking about the small streets and businesses, everything is done on the street...A few reminders that China is still a Communist country with the military buildings, red stars and posters for the people but it is quite relaxed. We were woken one morning by ten minutes of automatic weapons and explosions but then they have to practise somewhere.....

Relief ...the guide took us to some historic and cultural parts of the town. The old town and waterways were great and even better by night all lit by lanterns, you can really feel the past, but unfortunately not much left today. The Master of the Nets garden was lovely but did suffer in comparison with Japan. They treasure water formed rocks as you can see from the photos.

But for us the real experience was just walking the streets watching the people...and them watching us....Europeans are obviously not that common...or are we just that good looking??? They even want to have their photo taken with us....it's just like being Posh and David Beckham!!!

On to our third stop, once the capital, Nanjing and we were right in the heart of it .....well building site anyway. And I can confirm they work 24/7... So a noisy couple of nights and I am a bit grumpy today with lack of sleep. I'm sure Catherine won't notice!!!

The islands in the lake park, just outside the Northern Gate, were great for a Saturday afternoon stroll. Boats on the lake, music and the inevitable street stalls. We felt confident and decided to use the metro to travel to the south side of town....surprisingly easy to buy ticket (actually blue token) and get the right platform and right stop...the difficulty is in deciding which exit to use. Oh well...after an hour of wandering we at last ended in roughly our destination area and food. No English spoken or menu so a stab in the dark at ordering. The vegetables and salad fantastic, my meat dish was prawns, and Catherine's beef was some pieces of fish. Very tasty but on our return our first case of iffy tummy. It had to happen.

The next day, with Lin our Nanjing guide, we visited the mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yatsen the founder of the Republic of China up in the mountains. Very beautiful and peaceful and a very interesting history lesson. Some reminders of the Japanese massacre of civilians prior to the war and for me thinking about the Yangtze River on which Nanjing sits and our colonial days. Pete I hope you noticed a few more people in the pictures this time. I would take one in the metro but it's so squashed I couldn't get my camera out.....

A visit would not be complete without Confucious, but we missed the temple as there is little left now and toured the area. I think it used to be the Soho of Nanjing? Last was a visit to the main gate of the walled town in the south of the city. The walls are very impressive, all 20 km of them, but you can only access small parts at present. The gate and it's various courtyards ( to trap the enemy) and hidden tunnels (to hide your troops before releasing them on the unsuspecting enemy) were impressive. After watching and having a go at throwing the ninja shuriken (little metal stars), I resisted having a go at the archery much to Catherine's relief.

At present we are en-route to Qingdao, an old German colonial town on the coast famous for its beer....I'm sure we will sample a few whilst, I hope, relaxing on the beach. I hope we find better food there than you Gail...

This train journey is our longest so far - according to the display the speed peaked at 305 kms per hr.....seeing a different kind of scenery to the high-rise cities and rather worryingly it looks foggy & a bit wet - maybe the beach is hopeful, despite the sunny 20c forecast!

If you do spot any spelling, grammar or technical errors please feel free to contact my brother, Andrew who is proof reading......one little mistake!