Shanzou was a most lovely place. And the Hotel was awesome! Before leaving the city we went to a Silk Factory, Firstly we checked out he processing section then the retail section. What a great display of products from bedding to a vast array of clothes. After a few astute investments we headed off to Hangzhou. What another beautiful city, they call these 2 cities 'heaven on earth'. Beautiful parks, waterways & other scenery. The Buddhist Temple was lovely. T...

Rainy here yesterday & today, just drizzly. In Nanjing, another small city this time only 6 million people! A day of pearl shopping(none for me), a couple of hrs of bus travel til we arrived here in Nanjing, a visit & another good climb at Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum. Very impressive, many people & we seem to be an attraction with lots of people staring & wanting photos with them. Not a lot of Westerners in this region & we seem to have taken on c...

Yesterday morning we went to the Mausoleum of Sun Yat Sen, our local guide Maggie was full of information about Nanjing but we all got a bit on overload with her constant banter. Jimmy our Guide is much easy going & less intense. We then saw the City Wall which is the largest ancient city wall in China. The Yangtze River was certainly impressive as was the Yangtze River Bridge. Here we also saw the Master painting the inside of snuff bottles, teapots & c...

Last night we have staying in Wuxi. A small southern China city of ONLY 6 million people. I can't believe how modern the cities are, full of kilometer after kilometer of highrises both for offices & apartments. China is such a contrast of the old & the new, the rich & the poor, on one side of the street are amazing buildings & on the other dilapidated small houses. As I have only had access to Wifi in the Hotels I haven't had time to load photos b...

Wow what a day! Firstly we went at checked out the Olympic Stadium area, eg the Birdcage etc very impressive. Then onto the Jade Factory which was fascinating, I didn't realize the variety of Jade types, I had always thought Jade was just green. From there we moved on to the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall. This was just amazing, the experience of being there & actually climbing a very small section of it, very steep & uneven steps! The views were in...