Went on a trip to Suzhou, near Shanghai, today.
Took us less than 25 minutes to reach it by train (apx. 50 km from Shanghai on a 250 km/h train).
Suzhou itself is build on canals (same as Venice). While we didn't end up taking a mini-cruise on the canals, we saw some of them and they were ok.
The main reason we went to Suzhou was to visit "The Humble Admininistrator Garden", which is considered one of the finet in China. Well, it is, sort of. :) The garden's colours are far less saturated than they appear on the books and Internet, but still - a lovely garden to pass an hour and a half in (although the 70 RMB price does not justify it).
Upon returning to Shanghai, we went to an Expo 2010 store, where they have a final sale of Expo items for ridiculous prices. We ended up buying a t-shirts and 2 caps for only 60 RMB (for all of 'em together).
Later, we spent over an hour in Club Sofitel's "happy hour" with tons of food and drinks, after which we took a long walk in town, only to end up on the Bund, this time after dark while it is still lit. Lovely.
Tomorrow we're off to the Auto Shanghai 2011 expo, which ought to be fun. :)
Who would have thought - a week has already passed since we started the trip - 2 more to come! :)))