The Chinese roads are rather infamous. They are notorious for their traffic, speed and noise pollution. One my way to work on day, I caught this amusing sight. It appears the cargo weight is much more than what a motorcycle could bear. If according to the laws of Momentum, the round-wise force is greater than the anti-clock-wise force. Thus it just topple over.
A good samaritian came over. This is the Chinese community spirit. Generally there are bad hats in China as seen from the press, but on the whole, the confucian and buddhist values still run deep within them.
And here we go!
Yea. It is brought back onto ground.
On the 7th July 2007 (7/7/7), one of my colleague drop by over from Kunshan. He stayed at my room over the weekend and we visited the sights in Wuxi again. It is my second time visiting Taihu and the Big Buddha. This time we signed up for a one day tour package. It is a big mistake as we only have around 2 hours for each sights. They brought us for shopping in between the stops. Guess they made more money from the shopping instead of the tour itself.
Here I am just at the park next to Taihu. The weather shows it is going to rain. I just love this weather, especially the strong breeze - really reminds me of home.
We took a ferry which brought us round the northern region of the lake.
Wuxi is frequently quoted in the international press because of the lake's pollution and how all its city citizens were affected by it. Here is the real extent of the blue-green algae explosion.
A tree against a backdrop of the green lake.
The heavenly island on the green lake.
On the 21st July, my brother came over to Shanghai for his business trip. I visited him on the Saturday and brought him around the city.
The very next day, Kawashima-san, Lin-san and me went shopping for Wedding Dress. I have blogged down this shopping trip in detail and sent to Kawashima-san and Obata-san. The title is 'Kawashima-san goes shopping'. I have included the shopping trip below.
Act 1: Where to shop
As the title goes, this journal entry is all about Kawashima-san shopping trip for a wedding dress. I was first informed about the wedding dress shopping on Wednesday. In Wuxi city, there were quite a number of bridal salons that promote and sell wedding dresses, so I guess paying a visit to these shops will be alright. But on second thought, perhaps consulting the locals will be best. I consulted Contec’s Zhou-san about it, he recommended Suzhou’s Wedding dress shopping street. It is China most famous wedding dress shopping street!
While we were discussing on the best place to shop, the entire MCP and MCS members who shared the same office as us got involved discussing it. One of Japan Chinese manager even contacted his Beijing friend to find out the price for a top grade wedding dress. Alright! So our entire software team of 15 members all knows about this shopping trip on Sunday to Suzhou.
Act 2: The journey to the shopping street
I managed to buy the train ticket to Suzhou on Saturday. So the journey there should be pretty much settled. We left the hotel at 9.45am and arrived at the station at 10am. Coincidentally, the train has just arrived and we whisk our way through the ticket gates and to our carriage. We arrived at Suzhou at 10.36am, after a 22 minutes ride. Suzhou station is quite chaotic as much of the surrounding area is under construction. We have to walk a considerable distance just to get the train ticket back to Suzhou. Thankfully, I’m able to jump queue as a ticket counter has just opened.
But our taxi ride to the shopping street is quite terrible. The taxi drivers in Suzhou, like in Wuxi, are obnoxious. Compounded by the hot summer temperature, we have to queue for around 10 minutes to get a ride to the shopping street. Finally, we have arrived at the shopping street.
Act 3: The shopping begins
There are many shops that sell wedding dresses in the area. It ranges from traditional Chinese dresses to the modern / classical style dresses.
Here is a view of the wedding dresses on displayed.
Here is our dear Kawashima-san doing his detailed shopping. He found a few good wedding dresses design from the net and will only select those shops that offer these designs.
“你们有这一些款式吗？(こちらデザインありますか)”
Hmm… I think there isn’t any over here…
And viola! After 4 hours of shopping, he has finally found it!!! A complete wedding dress package has been purchased, it consists of the gloves, tiara, wedding veil and the dress. Coincidentally, their wedding day is today (16th Sept 2007).
Below are the wedding photos of Kawashima-san and Obata-san. Updated 2nd October 2007.
Here is our group photo shot at Suzhou temple.
We roped in a tour guide who show us round the temple and told us quite a bit about its history.
I love to take photos. This interest has been rubbed onto me by my SEP Buddy Joshua when he just whip out his camera on any fascinating sights. Here I am directing Kawashima-san towards a perfect posture against the leaning tower of Suzhou.
And my Korean buddy Mr Jung below. His expression is so real that I'm sure it will qualify for an 'artistic' contest.
Though it is part of my personal interests of not releasing photos of me at work to protect my job's confidentiality, and to draw a line between work and travel. The photo below is an exception, it is one of my last few days in my worksite. I made sure my company's and client's name is not shown in the picture.
Here is a splendid view from my hotel room at sundown. I have been staying at this hotel for 7 months and had the same room for 5 months consecutively.
