Today was a shopping day. We took the morning very easy and didn’t leave the hotel room until 10:30. When we left, we went to a boutique-ey shopping area, filled with small stores. We shopped and walked around there, and then headed over to a very Westernized shopping mall area. We ate lunch at this shopping mall where my dad and I stuffed ourselves full of delicious dumplings and shou mai. The best I’ve ever had! After lunch, we looked around for a bit and then walked to a flea market, where we bargained for our items. However, when we bargained, the sellers didn’t seem that annoyed, so we probably could’ve gotten a better price for everything. Even so, it was all no more than eight dollars.
Now we are in the hotel, and are going out to dinner with my dad’s boss tonight. Also joining us for dinner is one of China’s most famous contemporary artists, Zhang Huan. (Or something like Zhang Huan.)
-Margot
Today our wake-up call was at three… In the morning. Not fun. We left the hotel at four and I slept for the two a half hour bus ride.
Our eclipse viewing sight was a highway rest area. People were either in a small plaza or on a nearby field viewing the eclipse. It was very cloudy in the morning, but it started to clear up about half an hour before the eclipse was about to start. Sadly, it became cloudy again right before, and it started raining. Because of the rain, we couldn’t see anything for a long time.
About an hour later, some people started noticing some glimpses of the sun, this was about twenty minutes before totality started. By the time the eclipse was total, we could see it. It was very surprising and no one had expected for us to see it so well with what the weather was like in the morning. However, for the more informed about eclipses they were not as pleased. We saw the corona of the sun when we wanted to see something else or something like that. That part was way above my head. Anyway, we were very lucky, also considering that after totality it went back to being cloudy again, so totality was in the perfect time slot.
After lunch at a cafeteria-like restaurant at the rest stop, we headed back to the bus for the long ride to the hotel. Now we’re at the hotel, me typing this, and my dad sleeping.
Seeing the eclipse was very cool, even though it wasn’t as good as it could’ve been because it was cloudy, so I plan to see many more in my lifetime.
-Margot
Today my dad and I decided to ditch the tour bus. Maybe it was the counting, the soft-spoken tour guide holding the flag attempting to round us up, or the early wake up call that made us want to do this, but I can’t be sure.
By mistake, we still got the early wake-up all this morning, but we were already were up. We headed out later than normal, because of our freedom. Once we were out of the hotel, around ten, we took a taxi to the bund area by the river. This area is filled with old European buildings. Once we were there, we walked around for about five minutes in the heat before seeing a sign for the underground sight-seeing tunnel, going underneath the river. This ride, in a little cart-thing, was just bizarre. We were sitting in probably a 6 feet by four feet subway-type thing, in a tunnel, with lights flashing all around us. The, …thing lasted for about three minutes.
Once we got to the other side of the river, we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower, since it was right there, and went to its museum. Its museum was very interesting, but all it was were these fake, life-size people in old Chinese scenarios. There were also many small models of old-fashioned areas in Shanghai. The museum was huge for what it contained.
The next place we went was the Contemporary Art Hall museum, which contains contemporary Indian and contemporary Chinese art. It is very small, but also very interesting. We also ate lunch there at probably the most expensive restaurant we’d been at all trip. However, the money proved worth it (even though I wasn’t paying for it) because it was delicious. My favorites were a pineapple-coconut smoothie, noodles with peanut sauce, and for dessert, purple rice infused with coconut milk (though it tasted much different than that), served with mango.
We also went to the urban development museum because it is right next to the art hall. In this museum has a giant to-scale model of all of Shanghai on one of its floors. It’s really interesting to look at the different types of building and to see how big Shanghai is. After this museum, we went back to the hotel to rest, and then went out next with the tour group for dinner.
At dinner they explained some eclipse-ish stuff, while, myself, in the back, where I could barely hear, entertained myself by trying to go to sleep.
-Margot
Today after we got off the bus we got onto a relatively small boat, which was surprisingly close to the canal water level. Obviously, we were on a canal. So we rode around on the boat for about 45 minutes. It was nice. We got to see some local life on the sides of the canal, with people washing their clothes in the water, and just average home life going on. We also got to buy some souvenirs on the boat, but I will leave those as a surprise for when I get home.
After the boat, we went to a silk factory, in fact, the number one silk factory in Suzhou. There, we got to see how silk is made, which is a very neat and complex process to see. In the store part of the factory, we also got some more gifts, which are more surprises for my family. We ate lunch at the silk factory and then headed for a what-used-to-be-private garden.
The garden was very hot, but it was pretty. There was an interesting rock formation there. Just of one slender, about 20-foot high rock. Cool, but overrated. After the garden, we had the two-hour ride back to Shanghai, in which I puzzled my dad with some puzzles. Go figure.
We dinner at a restaurant probably the most different one compared to the other Chinese family-style meals. The food was the most odd, probably, especially because some of it never could be identified by the members of our table.
-Margot
This is an entry to catch up on the last few days.
First of all, two nights ago, we had a welcome dinner with a show. The show consisted of some acrobatics, some Chinese opera, and a musician playing on an instrument that is unknown to me. During this performance, during an acrobatics part, I was pointed at to volunteer, and never the less, I ended up in a barrel on a woman’s feet, spinning around.
The next morning, after breakfast, I didn’t feel well, so my dad and I decided it would be better to skip the tour that day. Both my dad and I slept for most of that morning, and then by lunchtime, I was feeling better so we went out. I was hungry by that time so we found our way to the first restaurant we saw near Tiananmen Square, where the taxi had dropped us off. After lunch, we walked back towards Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, and saw both briefly, since I wasn’t feeling that well again by that time, and it was very hot. We finally found a taxi back to the hotel, and then I slept until 8 o’ clock, when we ordered some room service, and my dad played some gin. I went back to sleep victoriously about an hour and a half later.
Now we are in the airport, ready to board for our flight to Shanghai.
-Margot
This entry is for my mom, because apparently she enjoys reading my writing about food.
The breakfast food in the hotel is a very large array of food. It has some western dishes like scrambled eggs, French toast, and bacon, but then it also has deep fried peanuts, which taste more like beans than nuts. The Chinese equivalent to oatmeal is congee, and there are many toppings available to put in it. Some of these include pickles, salt tofu sauce, sour Chinese cucumber, and artichoke, but quoting my father, the artichoke looked more like the insides of a snail. The breakfast area also always has rice, fried and regular, breads, dim sum, sausage, fruit salads which have bread fruit in them, many fish, chicken, and pork dishes, and more.
There is also a fancy Chinese restaurant in our hotel, and on the menu is fish lips and marinated goose head. And of course, the regular birds nest and shark fin soup.
So, that’s some food of the hotel.
-Margot
