Dawn broke for us on New Year's Eve with the train cruising along. Everyone actually slept well considering the air conditioning was on cold for some bizarre reason. The train eventually arrived into the town of Suzhou at 11am which Tommy informed us of a modest population of 10 million?! We took a taxi transfer with the driver surrounded by a metal cage which was reassuring... where were we? The hotel on arrival was very nice and the room was warm and pleasant, which was very welcome to us both.

Suzhou was once described by Marco Polo as one of the most beautiful cities in china but unfortunately as been a victim to communism with sprawling skyscrapers and industrial buildings. Despite this the town had a charm to it and is often referred to as the Venice of China. Our tour of the town firstly involved a walking tour around the beautiful Humble Administrator's Garden. This 5.2 acre garden full of lovely water features was built in 1502 and has that classic Chinese feel with pavilions a s zigzag bridges and stairs scattered about. After this we headed to the mightily impressive North Temple Pagoda standing a full 73 metres worth of nine storeys. We made the climb but hew winding wooden staircase and emerged onto a wonderful wintery view of Suzhou with snow covered rooftops and steam emerging from every other building. I felt a little bit of vertigo at first but got used to it quite quickly, Laura got some gorgeous snaps and we enjoyed the view for a little while before we then negotiated the long staircase down.

After the stunning pagoda we walked through town which involved getting stressed because I withdrew the wrong amount from the cash machine which charged me, I was not very happy at that point and even shouted at beau who was telling me t chill. Laura proceeded to eventually calm me down and Tommy then lead us to our evening time river cruise through the town. Although the temperature had dropped considerably the neon lit canal always was beautiful and you got to the see the locals milling about in the everyday lives. The boat moored up and we disembarked onto a beautiful shopping strip littered with red Chinese lanterns giving it a very traditional feeling. We quickly spotted a local bar and being New Year's Eve everyone felt the urge to have a beer. The place was known as the Rainbow Bar and was very quirky and cosy, it had numerous world flags pinned to the ceiling and everywhere was 1960-70's British memorabilia including Rolling Stones and Beatles posters. We ordered the beers and Blair got a very foul tasting rice wine that needed a lot of lemonade to make it consumable, but the girls persevered and almost finished it off. As goes with the territory of beer the munchies soon followed and Laura and I had a lovely rice dish and the guys had pizza... i found it tasty although I do like a little bit more quantity.

After the beers we headed back to hotel for a freshen up and we all decided to head back out to see the new year in. After walking around this famous stretch and looking about we felt we would stick to what we know and headed back to the Rainbow Bar. It was by far the most atmospheric place and the owners were really nice. The beers continued to flow and eventually the card games including 'Crazy Eights' was unleashed with rice wine drinking forfeits. While we were 'consuming' there was a limited selection of English tunes playing, however we later found out that the place was actually a karaoke bar and were subjected to numerous renditions of Chinese ballads from the locals... I think we made a huge error of judgement by applauding a young chap with an awful voice who was screeching a ballad... He then thought he was amazing and we couldn't get him off. We were sitting under the speakers and poor Jorge wasn't enjoying it haha... Though he kept laughing at them... He soon sorted us a table up stairs and off we went. The upstairs was very cosy and although you could hear the tunes... It wasn't as loud. We continued our little party and the huge tankards of beers went down a treat.

Midnight crept up on us and then we realised what were the chances of being in the only country in the world that does not really celebrate new year.... On the other hand being with the fantastic people we have met on the tour made up for it. We had a little countdown at midnight and shared kisses and hugs. Blair was feeling rotten and fair play to her she had lasted the evening although by now we were all pretty pooped and a little tipsy so headed back to the hotel to rest up for our trip to the famous water town of Zhouzhuang tomorrow. On the way home we saw a huge firework display and everyone wished us a happy new year... It was really lovely. We arrived at the hotel and curled up in bed sipping our green tea and looking forward to what the year ahead would bring us.