Currently is sixth day in China, location is Shanghai, staying in a hotel room somewhere near the train station. Let me update on the past 2 days, since I can't get online much yesterday and too tired to blog 2 days ago.

4th day in China, location, Suzhou.

The day is our full day at Suzhou, woke up early for the first time at 7am since we're on a one day tour to all the heritage places in Suzhou. Had our breakfast, mostly cold food which plainly allows our tastebuds to go bonkers.

After breakfast, we got onto a van to transport us to the first place, also where we supposed to gather and meet the tour guide and the rest of the tour people. The first stop is ShiZiLin, Lion Forest. It's a place of residence to some rich guy in the past, and also portrayed a lot of sexism which is common in those era. There are many rooms and each of them had a story of their own. Also, there is a labyrinth in the residence itself! Crossing a small bridge, there's 2 entrances, one on the left and the other on the right. To complete the labyrinth, you have to walk in from one and come out of the other. QianLongEmperor was said to have taken 4 hours to complete the labyrinth, however, me and my brothers cheated once, and got out of the labyrinth in 20mins. After that, we gathered and moved on to the next site.

It's called YuanLin. Also a place of residence to another rich guy then. The stuff are mostly the same, just that the funiture there is super heavy. The tour guide challenged us to carry them to the front door of the residence, after which it would be considered ours. All tried, and failed. I could barely lift the chair! It must have weighed about 100plus kg. Anyway, in this place, there's also a calligraphy of a thousand characters, in perfect composition fashion, the trick is that none of the characters are ever repeated. Cool?

The next location, is also a residence but I forgot the name, also belonging to a rich guy. In this one, it's special because it is built like a add-on. The guy see that something would be nice somewhere, he built. Also, this residence took some essence of the earlier 2 residences, having a mini-labyrinth and also the heavy furniture. An ancient copycat? That's what I thought too.

We went on to the next destination, it's a temple though. Some may remember it from a poem, it's called HanShanShi(han as in cold, Shan as in mountain, Shi as in temple). The temple is big, and even had a bell chamber. On 31st december, the bell would ring for a prayer which I think would be very special. It is said that everyone has 108 frustrations, and that prayer would remove one of those frustrations each time. It would start sounding at exactly 10seconds past 11.49pm(or 11.47pm), sounding (every 12 seconds if I'm not wrong), with the 108th bell sounding at 12am, new year's day! Isn't that cool?

After visiting HanShanShi, we went to some garden to view a slated pagoda. It's tilted at a 2.xx angle, so we won't climb it. Then we went to another temple called FuZhiMiao(Fu as in father, Zhi as in son, Miao as in temple). Inside got a pagoda too, which is under renovation since it's old. The pagoda is super special, since it's believed that Japan is a prosperous country because of this pagoda. The buddhist student(as in one who studies buddhism) repeatedly says that it's fate, while there's a banner saying "Bao2 Ta4 Wei2 Xiu1, Qian1 Nian2 Yi4 Mian4, Yuan2 Fen4". Translating to be "The pagoda is under renovation currently, Meeting you at this time (compared with meeting once in a millenium), it's fate. In the temple, I switched off my skeptic mindset of Buddhism. Well, it's China and their population is majority a Buddhist. Anyway, they said that there is somewhere where you can pray for 3 wishes, and that if they come true, all they asked of is that you return to the temple to pray again. So I was thinking, "Why not?". I gave it a shot, first wish, for my parents. Second for my studies, and third, well, it's personal. I can't reveal much about the wishes, cause it won't come true if I'm too specific. Let's just see how it goes, in a few years time.

That fairly concludes our 4th day in China. After that, we just had dinner and went back to the hotel to rest.

5th day in China, location is Suzhou, while moving to Shanghai by train in the evening.

Went back to GuanQianJie, slacked around Suzhou waiting for the time to board the train. Had my first KFC meal for the trip, and did nothing much for the day. Boarded the train and set towards Shanghai, reached in around 50mins. Checked into a hotel somewhere near the Railway Station, had dinner and called it a day. Wanted to blog, but brother hogged the laptop.

6th day in China, location is Shanghai.

Today, unlike other days, is quite warm. Waked up in the morning for their buffet breakfast. Didn't have much of an appetite to eat though, so ate a little and proceeded back to room awaiting the rest to finish up their meals. After which, we took a long time to decide on the transport we want to take to ChengHuangMiao(named like a temple, but it's a shopping district actually). Making our decision, we took the train to somewhere near the place, and walked. Then we looked around for a while, then queued to have a XiaoLongBao(Xiao as in small, Long as in dragon, Bao as in Bun) lunch. It's a long queue but a lunch worth it. Words really can't describe the taste, it's just too delicious. Saw some dried food stores, and saw dried peach. I don't know whether it's what Nicole wants, but I really can't find anything else.

Then shopped around a bit, then proceeded to XiangYangLu(It's not a street, but a series of shopping alleyways making up cheap clothing, bags, etc type of goods). Just after I got in, I bought a set of Adidas windbreaker with trackpants for RMB70. Roughly S$14. Not bad too. Then walked around abit, can't find a nice wallet so I didn't buy any. Then found a North Face bag which is quite suitable for school use, bargained the price from RMB220 to RMB73. Quality is good, and the price is better. How can get a bag you like for S$13plus? Anyway, moving on, I looked around for a waist pouch. Nice, big and yet cheap. Can't seem to find one below RMB40, so I bargained one till RMB50 when the shopkeeper quoted RMB160.

Trackpants+Windbreaker = RMB80
Backpack = RMB73
Waist pouch = RMB50

Total = RMB203 (Converted : S$40plus)

Treble!! And with my 2 other bags, my total expenditure went to RMB293. Well over my expectations but heck. I got what I wanted. Ruiming, the little red book is totally gone. I can't even catch a glimspe of it this time around. Sorry.

Another update is that our luggage is found. After 6 days. Singapore Airlines fault or China Airport's fault?
Took the train back again, and saw 2 anime and manga magazines. Can't find in Singapore, if possible it's also rare, so I bought them.

That ended today. Tomorrow moving to Hangzhou in the morning. So I'll see if I can update anytime soon.