Day 3

Day 3, June 24

Our first destination of today was Jing Li Garden, in Suzhou, a beautiful place filled with rocks and flowers and bridges. We were treated to a private lunch, complete with Chinese opera singers/musicians. There was a tour guide who spoke English, Tracy, and she loved to sing and act. After that garden. We took a bus to a bus station in Suzhou and caught another bus back to Shanghai. We ended up at a different bus station than what we had started at, and the moment we stepped off the escalator to the main floor we were bombarded by drivers asking to take us wherever we wanted. We ended up asking one man if he knew where our hotel was, and then we had to settle on a price. He said 100, we said 50, he said 60, and we were done. The guy's friend sprinted off and his wife had us stand with her so we wouldn't run off while he got his car. It turned out to be a brand new KIA, not too shabby. It even had air conditioning! We finally arrived at our destination after a tentative half hour; neither of us had ever been so happy to be back in that hotel. The tour group came in late tonight, about 9pm, and we shall see them tomorrow!