April 28, 2005 Archives

Highway from Wuxi to Nanjing. Brand new.

Tourist place in Nanjing, like the one in Shanghai, but bigger, meaner.

Magazine stand within that tourist place.

A police box on the tourist street.

Later, after we were done with all the shopping, we went to visit the bowels of the bridge in Nanjing crossing that river I forgot the name of...

Me and Mao Zedong. <3 I'm a sucker for Communist memorabillia, and an article from the SCMP's Sunday Magazine on the following day made me want one of those Sun Yat-sen outfits worn by Mao and everyone else. Communist wares is our (overseas Chinese or Chinese culture enthusiasts) new sort of cool.

The next morning, they took us to the ultimate shopping center for tourists... It's like revisiting the bosses at the last level of a video game...

I bet it was jade they'd sell us, and I was right... until seeing the rest of the floor, plus second floor of building. >_> Furniture, books, crystal balls, lions, buddhas, and other luxury goods.

Books about Chiang Kai-shek?

Our tour leader, Pat-Pat, reading the guide's evaluation sheet. :D

Our bus driver (Chen "sifu"), who hails from Wuxi.

Mister Chan, roomate I was assigned to (for the snoring competition >_>).

Easiest-to-take immigration post (although there wasn't much to be seen), at the Nanjing airport.

Wuxi, some city that happens to be on our way from Suzhou to Nanjing. Second time there, but rarely deviate from the path taken on the last trip there. It's a "small" town, of course.

Guess what they tried to sell us there?

So I went for a walk... one commercial street nearby the earthware "research institute". One typical newspaper stand. In every country you go, they always look the same... In China, they're those cabins painted in green, overflowing with newspapers and magazines (but careful, no foreign newspapers, nor pr0n, you're in China).

So b/c I'm a geek, supermarkets are *the* thing to visit in every new city. Found this Chinese wine, grape wine, that is.

And there were also American chips. I guess it's because they're a relatively new thing in China, that Japanese chips have not already swamped the market (like in HK, where you won't be able to find any of those "slim" bags of brands like Lay's in your regular convenience store or Park 'n Shop).

中山路 (zhongshan road), crosses the center of Wuxi. It's the only city where the city centre is reachable on foot from the hotel we stayed at. The town centre looked like this in 2002, nothing comparable to what it looks like today. Maybe it's the night picture illusion, but I thought I could walk the whole commercial stretch in 10 minutes, and that crossing the streets wasn't such an adventure like this time. Was that the best example of how fast a pace China develops?

America's Fast Food 300-pound grandmother - you can see it everywhere you go - but it doesn't beat KFC in popularity.

This is Ah-Wai (by far the loudest of our tour members), his wife (to the left), and a nice waitress who spoke approximate Cantonese (learnt from karaoke-ing to Cantopop, I suppose). Along with our tour sub-group ("Tour B", Ah-Wai 老爺 calls it) of Table D from the back of the bus, we went searching for a restaurant post-9PM... Not Hong Kong, or even Shanghai, so everything is closed by 8:30PM in Wuxi.

Not quite the same one, but I bet the price is about the same. So, pearls, in Wuxi, on the shores of 太平 (Taiping) Lake.

Taiping Hu, one of the largest lakes in China.

The city of Suzhou.

I fail to understand the logic by which guided tours decide of the places to visit, but a residential complex? To show off how China is one country with plenty of contrasts... This is the side of a lake or river, nearby a brand new residential compound, probably aimed at the new middle-to-rich class and expats.

Me, (self-)posing. :D

Some bridge, which was not even the tourist attraction...

Don't be fooled, restaurant is rarely good with tours... So, my suggestion is to skip whatever he tour feeds you with, and grad something at a local chain/noodles restaurant. I would've fed myself with xiao long bao in Shanghai if all was up to me...

The next morning, streets of Suzhou bustling with activity...

Silk is one of the famous products of Suzhou (I don't know - I'm super gullible - I believe whatever the tour guide tells me). This is where the raw product, the silk worm cocoon is boiled and made into these basic fibers to be used for making the sheets to be used for making blankets, and the rest of the stuff.

If those people went to visit the Eastern Townships, they'd probably buy blankets made out of asbestos. But apparently silk blanket are Teh Good, and relatively cheap if you buy them directly from the Source(tm). I don't know. I told myself I wouldn't buy anything I didn't need... (Now you're talking about the dude who'd go and buy many times more expensive stuff like a laptop or one of those network walkmans he doesn't even need) So from China, I got... Chrysanthemum buds.

Sea of tourists...

Supercar - B (B-side collection)

I like Track 2 of disc 1 (Love Song). Etc Etc. Just listen to it, and let me know what you think of it.