After lunch, we decided to explore more of the city.


The fog was so heavy that we couldn’t even see the tops of the buildings.














After this, we decided to take the new Shanghai subway (modeled after the Japanese system) to the outlet malls. It was a really long street/strip that was so crowded, I can’t even think about it because it drives me crazy.







This jade was SUPER expensive!

There are ads for the Shanghai expo all over the place


My mom and her friend are short… check out that old lady on the right!



“Hey guys, I drive an SZS6503B7″

It was time to head back to the hotel…

We discovered this muslim run place near our hotel. They were serving some bread stuff and BBQ lamb kabobs.

These guys were freaks… in a bad way, treating customers as if they were owed something.

Still… it was extremely delicious

My dad’s birthday is on the 4th so he got some cake.

The view from our open elevator

We were going to visit my grandpa’s brother. He’s 90! I remember he visited us in LA about 10 years ago. He traveled something like 1800+ days in 10 years and was in extremely high spirits with lots of energy. I guess in the past few years, his legs have weakened, he requires self shots for diabetes, and his hearing ability has also drastically declined. Kind of sad that the body fails before the brain, but such is life.

Here we’re all chatting in their bedroom. They can’t go far from the house for fear of something going wrong, so they’re in the bedroom most of the day.


At the restaurant…

He had forgotten his shot, so he rushed back home to quickly administer it. (The restaurant was within walking distance)

The food came on… and we began eating when he came back


some DELICIOUS fish!

“shrimp on the rocks”

Overall the dinner was very appetizing. After dinner, it was raining so we walked them back, said good-bye, and taxied back to the hotel.

The next morning (Monday), we checked out early and took a bullet train to Suzhou. Had some more of those pork bun things for breakfast before we left. :)

Some shots at the train station…



Our second class seats were pretty nice, wish we could get these on the long ass airplane rides haha.


The train went over 200 km/h at some points… not as fast as I was expecting.


Finally we got to Suzhou and took a taxi to the hotel.


We checked out the hotel quickly before my dad’s friend picked met us and picked us up.

These rooms were nicer than the Shanghai ones and they were only about $30 USD per room per night. In Vegas, each room would’ve cost nearly $200. My dad and I get a room and my sister and mom get one.


We headed out in my dad’s friend’s car to explore Suzhou. He’s a really great host, really personable, great stories, etc. We first went to the countryside (rural areas in china are called nong-chun). These are mainly all poor farming families… but this is the BEAUTIFUL side of china.

Many of them open the doors of their own homes and welcome in travelers for super cheap… under 20 yuan per night (less than $3 USD) and that includes hotel-like accommodations, fully cooked 8 dish, 1 soup meal, and more.







Here’s the “restaurant” that we decided to eat at. It’s actually just run by a family so they essentially serve home-cooked meals except we get to order from a menu. It was a decently sized place but we were the only group there eating. This time of the year, and this economy means things are pretty slow.

The place was right next to the Taihu Lake (one of the largest lakes in china http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Taihu)

See those tangerines in the basket? We bought 4 full bags of those and it was 20 yuan (just under $3), very delicious too!

We got the best seat in the house! Literally eating right next to the lake!







We had one helluva meal for $30. Some of the best cooked fish I’ve ever had. The fish only exists in that lake and cannot be raised by man. It is illegal to fish during the summer months since that is growing season. Perfect timing for us!

Time to leave the area and head over to the next.

We went to visit an architect’s wet dream; housing that belonged to the uber rich of many years ago. (It’s now a private exhibit). This place was only a couple miles away from where we ate. Amazing that from the rural countryside to the super modern part of Suzhou is only separated by about 15 miles. (More on that later)



The stuff we saw here is traditional Suzhou architecture. This part is also preserved by the Gov’t. For good reason too, there is SO MUCH FLAVOR and it just oozes of style!



One of the trademarks are black walls…

Check out the floor design





The bedroom…

The smaller white flower petals have white porcelain (from broken bowls and dishes)… creative way to utilize waste

Oddly shaped ROCK

Imagine if you could have a courtyard styled like this!




Roof tiles


Chess room

The secret treasure floor

(stairway to get up there)


The secret hiding room

Kitchen
well…

Chopping board

Mom re-enacting

After that, we continued onto… (next post)