Whew! We have had a whirlwind of a weekend!!!
Friday after work we met up with Eric and headed over to the Shanghai Tour Bus company and bought tickets for a tour to Suzhou on Saturday (about 1 1/2 hours west of Shanghai). Then Eric brought us to an incredible restaurant where we had some of the best Chinese food yet--more like what we have in the States but better. Our favorite dish was beef and onions/bell peppers on a fajita-like plate. Actually, it was a whole lot like fajitas but with a Chinese food taste--lots of ginger and garlic flavor. Yumm!!!
After dinner we headed over to the Bund--an area on the Huangpu river that juxtaposes the old and new Shanghai. On one side are all of the old, European-inspired buildings, and on the other side are the tallest skyscrapers (and the building in Mission Impossible III that Tom Cruise jumps onto). We tried to take some pictures among the impressive crowds, but they were not the best.

Here we are in front of the Pearl of the Orient TV tower--the third-tallest tower in the world.

We took a river cruise for about an hour to take in all of the sights and then called it a night. By the way, people drive on the water just about how they drive on the street. Lots of cutting you off and honking. Just a neat experience!

So Saturday we made our way downtown to leave at 9AM for our tour of Suzhou--famous for its gardens and canals. Our tour was completely in Chinese, but the guides promised Eric they would take care of us. It was actually kind of nice because you didn't have to really pay attention since you didn't understand anything anyway!

It took about 1 1/2 hours on the bus (large air-conditioned tour bus) to get to the city. Along the way you get out of the city and see what the "real" China is like. Amazing! If there is land where something might grow, then it is farmed. Along the freeway, in front of industrial plants--everywhere--there were farmers using the land for anything and everything!

Suzhou itself was a typical tourist town--much smaller than Shanghai but still millions of people. The city was clogged with tour buses--worst traffic we'd seen yet! Once we arrived we split up into two groups on two smaller buses and started a busy day of sightseeing. We started with two different gardens. Here's a picture of Sabrina (not ready to take a picture) in the Couple's Garden. We took a better one, but this was more candid.

After this garden we hopped onto a small wooden boat and were ferried around a canal for a little while as a little man steered and sang a traditional Chinese song for us. He really got a kick out of us being on his boat and made sure to tell us "Hello"--using the extent of his English.

After the Couple's Garden was the Lingering Garden, where several Chinese families asked us to pose in pictures with them. That really made our day!

We stopped for lunch in a restaurant by a silk factory and had some great food! We had a beef dish that tasted just like Mr. Gatti's pizza sauce. Niether of us can explain why, but it was good!

We saw how silk is extracted from the silkworm coccoon--neat--and then were kind of stranded in an overpriced silk-product shopping center for about 30 minutes. Finally we were rounded up on the bus and headed over to a Bhuddist temple. It was really neat because it was a working temple with monks and everything. Here's a pic of one of the many Buddhas.

In another part of the temple, there was a massive 7-story pagoda that overlooked the city--very cool! And also very crowded! Everything was covered up in tourists--mostly Chinese.

After the temple we learned how traditional teapots are made in a teapot factory. They had a great demonstration and a hard sell--we thought we were at a timeshare presentation!--and the teapots were really neat. They are made from a certain material and in a way so that they float and have many other neat qualities. They are strong enough to support the weight of a large American man (insurance salesman from CA we met) they had stand on one. But overpriced, as were all the items along the tour. (We found a tea set we loved in the market behind the apartment for a quarter of the price!).

The last stop for the weary travelers was a very tall, leaning tower. There was no information in the guide book about it, and everything was in Chinese, so we took an obligatory picture from afar (almost $10US to go inside to get closer--highway robbery!!!) and retreated to the bus for some AC.

We arrived back home about 6:30 that night and were ready for some relaxing!!!

Sunday (today) we started out with Starbucks--Sabrina had not had coffee for almost 2 weeks and demanded it--and then explored and shopped a while. We looked around a local mall (Brilliance Mall) and on a whim got a traditional Chinese massage (less than $5 for one hour) that was incredible! The rest of the afternoon we're relaxing, journaling, staying in touch, and doing laundry. It's been an exhausting but fun weekend!!!

More adventures to come!