Arose and packed our daypacks for the next few days as we are leaving our cases here in Shanghai until we return on Sunday for our last night! Had breakfast and then boarded the bus for the trip to Suzhou. After about 30 minutes we stopped at a silk processing factory which was really fascinating. We got a really good introduction to silk production and were taken through a room where large machines were actually stripping the individual threads from the cocoons ...

This morning we went to the Shanghai Cultural Museum which was quite an amazing place. There were four floors of exhibits and we only had around 1.5 hours which was nowhere near enough. The ancient coin area was fascinating and I have included a photo of a Genghis Khan coin! There was a calligraphy area and an amazing furniture section which I have posted a few photos of. After that we drove to the Bund which is the old colonial area of Shanghai (not quite accura...

Had a fairly easy morning before leaving for the airport, a trip of around 40 minutes. The scenery was at least visible this time and the surrounding peaks continued to amaze us. On arrival we said a sad goodbye to Tony our local guide, who was just amazing. He was so nice and so helpful. He took dad's jacket to get the stud on the sleeve fixed for him and Grace told me that he had taken it home to fix it himself! That evening he rang Grace rather distraught as h...

Up early and went to breakfast in a central courtyard café within the hotel. It was quite a nice atmosphere and obviously designed to be a cool area in the hot season. The temperature was comfortable here at around 17C most of the time and a little cooler at night. The breakfast was a buffet as usual but dad and I just had toast as we are both starting to find it a bit hard to have a full cooked meal every morning! After brekkie we went outside and took a coup...

Up early and reorganised our backpacks as we are leaving our cases here in Guilin. After a very rushed breakfast we boarded the bus and headed to the dock for the ferry up the Li River. Unfortunately the day had dawned not much better than the previous. Really low misty cloud, though at least we could actually see the mountains and boy: were they spectacular! It was one of the most amzing sites/sights I have ever seen. You virtually had to blink to make sure that...