Foreign places Famous Faces All that digging in the sand at the beach when i was a little girl paid off and i finally reached China.

Now was time for Corey to finally see where I had been living since I arrived in China. Believe it or not, we caught a cab from Shanghai to Suzhou. 400 yuan later. We were being really lazy and it was a bit of a luxury. Its not something I thought I’d ever do again but actually, I did one more time. To put it in persepective of how ridiculous it is to catch a taxi from Shanghai to Suzhou, I’ll tell you the price of the train. Its 30 yuan at the most. Sure the train ride is only 30 mins on the fast train, but when you have luggage, you really don’t feel like hauling it around to the train station, up and down the stairs, waiting an hour for the train to arrive, then out again at the other end while you wait around for another taxi. Door to door, depending on how long it takes to get a cab, it can take a few hours from Shanghai to Suzhou. There were various suzhou exits that seemed to run off the freeway ,but the taxi driver looked like he knew where he was going. I could see where we had to go, but as I didn’t know the roads well, and nor did he, I just made a series of motions pointing left and right to guide him to the school where I live. As we had gone a fair bit out of the way, he was yelling in Chinese at us. Maybe he wanted more money but we weren’t prepared to give it. It wasn’t our fault he took the wrong. We arrived at the school gates. Finally the Disneyland Castle. Someone I am close to gets to witness the reality of it. Time for unpacking and washing. Oh so mundane but so desperately needed after one week in Shanghai. We decided not to stay at the school and booked The Bamboo Grove Hotel. It was nice enough, certainly wasn’t The Regent. Bamboo Grove had a comfortable bed which is a vital requirement. It should be illegal for hotels to not have one. It’s a four star hotel, but we just didn’t get the same kind of welcome as you do in Shanghai. To be honest, it has a very strange yet very typically a Chinese garden courtyard of rocks. At the night time, it looks amazing, but during the day, its quite ordinary. We had a look at the pool and it seemed nice enough but we didn’t really stay there long enough to appreciate it. And of course, after staying at The Regent, nothing compared. I showed Corey around the usual Suzhou places. Our time was limited and I didn’t get to show him the really amazing spots. We went to Guan Qian Jie which is the main pedestrianised shopping street. This is where we met with my Chinese friend Carl. We were so glad he could come to meet us. We needed a little help with finding out about train tickets. Turned out that we didn’t need his help after all. But we had tea with him at the tea house where they had a performance on. It was some Chinese instruments which I don’t know the name of. It was the first time I had experienced it. And this is where the Dragon Master was born. Corey had taken on a whole new façade that I hadn’t seen before. I was interested where this was going to go. How would this Chinese friend react to the Dragon Master in action. It was a first for me too, so I sat back and watched. Carl explained that there is a Chinese legend that the Dragon had nine sons. It was the Dragon Master’s challenge to find the nine sons in China. The Dragon Master actually did find out who the nine sons were from two young gentlemen working at The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Beijing. Here is an explanation below : HAVE A SPECIAL DRAGON MASTER TRIBUTE – thanks for making this trip unforgettable. According to legend the Dragon had nine sons, and each had a strong personality. There is no general agreement as to what the Dragon's sons are called. However, to most people, they are: . Haoxian . A reckless and adventuous dragon whose image can be found decorating the eaves of palaces. . Yazi . Valiant and bellicose; his image is seen on sword-hilts and knife hilts. . Chiwen . Chiwen likes to gaze into the distance and his appearance is often carved on pinnacles. . Baxia . Baxia is a good swimmer and his image decorates many bridge piers and archways. . Pulao . Pulao is fond of roaring and his figure is carved on bells. . Bixi . Bixi is an excellent pack-animal whose image appears on panniers. . Qiuniu . Qiuniu loves music and his figure is a common decoration on the bridge of stringed musical instruments. . Suanmi . Suanmi is fond of smoke and fire; his likeness can be seen on the legs of incense-burners. . Jiaotu Jiaotu is as tight-lipped as a mussel or a snail. His image is carved on doors. http://www.orienttouch.com/popuptext2.php?pID=50 - good pics and explanations. Draw some and include in photos0 From then on, the Dragon master sought out anything that remotely looked like a Dragon. It was quite exciting to be in the Dragon Master’s presence as you never knew what would happen. Chinese people wanted to interact with the Dragon Master and his main prey were replica watch men. There are tons of them on Guan Qian Jie. As they chase after you saying “watch, bag, shoes” - they didn’t need the encouragement, the Dragon Master was giving them by firing back at them with “How much? How much ?”. So we followed one of the men that had a shop a few streets away and located in a hideaway place at the back of an arcade. So we walked through the bag shop, then they opened a hidden dooway at the back which revealed a back room – full of watches. I have to admit, that these replicas were better quality than even I had seen before. Brand names galore. Fortunately, we were meeting more Chinese friends for dinner so time was short and Corey only spent 1000 yuan on 5 watches. Yes he realised he probably could have got them cheaper, but they were better quality. I got a Chanel watch out of it. I have to get the band re-sized but it’s a pretty nice watch. And it still keeps the right time. They also said they would give him a good deal on a suitcase, which we went back. Unfortunately further down the track in our trip, this bag would be cursed at, as the handle broke. New motto : Cheap merchandise often costs more in the end. Thai Coconut Kitchen (in the same vicinity as Guan Qian Jie) – we were there to meet Chinese Janet and her boyfriend. His nickname was Bee and her nickname was actually Fat baby or something like that. So we decided to call them Honey & Bee. The etiquette in China is that the person paying does the ordering. Well I ordered, and somehow, I picked all the fried dishes. But we all still had room for a mango pudding. Yum. One more night at the bamboo Grove then we were off to Beijing, The first leg of our trip. Our reasoning for not staying longer in Suzhou was that we could come back and finish the trip here. After all, we didn’t really feel like we had started the trip until we got on the train to Beijing.