We spent the morning in a 400 year old garden called the Yu Garden. It was built by a wealthy man to honour his parents. It took him 28 years and was just stunning. The rocks were collected and transported to the garden from hundreds of km away and cemented together with cooked rice mixed with lime.
There were lots of ornate carvings, especially of dragons. He was caught out as only emperors could have dragons in their gardens – his whole family was going to be persecuted. Luckily, as he was well liked by the Emperor, he escaped trouble by telling them the cravings were not dragons as dragons have 5 claws and his only had 3!
The garden was surrounded by shops and stalls and was horribly crowded! At least some of the girls were happy to see Starbucks!
We then drove to the famous shopping strip Nanjing road. It was full of famous brand shops – but we really could have been anywhere. The nicest part was stopping at a bar while Jason had a beer and watching the passing traffic – so many people, and some very cute kids!
We met up with Amy and went to find the bus – but he had disappeared! Amy had to catch a taxi to find him and get us picked up LOL.
We eventually got on the bus and to a Mongolian BBQ restaurant for lunch. You had a bowl and went along choosing what you wanted to eat. There was meat (with pictures indicating it was pork, chicken, goat or beef!) then veges and sauces. This was taken to the chefs who upended your bowl and started tossing it around a big solid hotplate. It was really yummy!
Attached to the restaurant was a folk art studio. It had some beautiful things to buy. I couldn’t resist the paper cuttings!
Off next to a “Free market”. This means that the government does not have control of the prices and you are free to bargain (“Friendship” shops are government controlled and have set prices). It was quite intimidating with vendors grabbing you and trying to get you to buy from the. I was terrible at bargaining, Jason has a much better chance of getting a good price – but they tricked him with false size labels on the shirts he bought so none fit grrrrrrr.
After an early dinner we headed for our overnight train to Xian. On the way Amy took us to a supermarket to buy supplies for breakfast. What a laugh! We had no idea what things were, but ended up with a good supply of snacks and muesli bars to get us through!
The train station was very crowded and quite scary! We had to wait for a while in the soft sleeper waiting room (first class). Finally we could get on the train.
The rooms on the train were tiny! Four to a room, with a very hard berth each and a tiny table to share. It was not a comfortable night. I don’t think many of us slept at all. Every time the train slowed or stopped (which was a lot!) I was awake.
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