Three Weekend Trips From Shanghai – Episode 227

tom lohrmann

Access site just great from work.

love the show.

Keep up the good work.

andrew

I can get to Amateur Traveler website from work, http://www.ftpsllc.com I know in the past some of our corporate filters would not allow websites with the word ‘podcast’ in them.

chris2x

Weird, I have not seen filters for podcast before. Huh.

Josh

Another great show. Unfortunately, I am one of the ones that can’t access the site from work (a city fire department). For me, it’s not the end of the world. I have episodes on my iPod and if I want to take a look at the site I just wait till I get home.

chris2x

Do you know what about it is blocked? Is because it has “amateur” or “podcast” or something else?

Sam

Able to load at work.

Chase Henderson

Loaded fine for me. I’m surprised it wasn’t blocked actually. (This may change next week.) Not because of any keywords, but our firewall keeps out blogs in general.

Alberto Mangones

Great show!
The site works just fine for me. I have “Websense” as a filter program.

Agagooga

Around 15:27 you showed a picture of a train speedometer going up to 431 km/h.

While the train from Shanghai to Suzhou is quite fast, it isn’t *quite* that fast – that honour belongs to the Maglev which takes you from the airport to the outskirts of Shanghai!

Agagooga

More stuff to add:

1) Suzhou is traditionally famous in China for its beautiful women
2) There’re many interesting sights around the West Lake in Hangzhou, though your guest mostly talked about the scenery

It’s quite surreal: on one shore of the lake is the modern city, and around the rest of it is the ancient buildings.

Kathy

I spent a couple of nights in Hangzhou and Suzhou – haven’t made it to Nanjing yet. A few additions:

Hangzhou – a boat trip to the islands in the lake is definitely worthwhile
– I took a bus to Lingyin Si, the Temple of Inspired Seclusion, big, with elaborately decorated statues, and a huge pavilion housing imaginative statues of the arhats.
– I was there on National Day and the town was absolutely packed with Chinese tourists – if you want a quiet time probably better to go mid-week on a non-holiday week

Suzhou – there are several gardens to choose from – I found the Humble Administrator’s too big and not as interesting as the Garden for Lingering and Master of the Nets, or even the less-famous Yi Yuan and Canling Ting
– When I was there the Master of Nets was open in the evening, with performances of Chinese music and dance. Rather touristy, but the garden was magical at night.
– I particularly enjoyed visiting the Museum of Embroidery – not really a museum, but a workroom with women doing silk embroidery that looked like paintings. The Silk Factory can be skipped if you’ve seen silk production elsewhere.
– I found the bus system in Suzhou particularly easy to use, as the stops on the main street had maps.