I caught up with my friend Amy the other day, I used to help her with her English when I lived here. She got me a gift, it’s a very expensive box of tea, I just hope I can get it back into Australia.

Lydia and I decided to go for a stroll to Lingyanshan today, first time in for years and a few things have changed. No need to take the bus because the new line 5 stops at the foot of the mountain, however it’s about 2 km from where I usually start.

It was hot today and the sun was strong and the locals were out in force, mind you as usual I went to a different area to avoid them. Most folk go clockwise but I like to go anticlockwise because it’s not as dangerous. Some of the steeper areas are very sandy due to erosion and if you are heading down you might engage gravity for an exciting ride.

After about an hour we began to meet folk coming the other way. As we got closer to the beginning of the trail it was hoachin. We headed on up and immediately encountered an army coming down the hill towards us. I kept to the right side and walked a path that was fairly quiet. This is what it was like for the next couple of hours, the only problem was trying to get through the narrower sections was challenging because there was absolutely know etiquette in the on coming hordes. I had to tell a few people to wait till we came down difficult areas, they just kept barging through without looking at what’s in front of them.

Young kids as well as adults and then some of them just sit in the middle of the path because they’re trying to have a rest and then no one else can get through. They are Fuckin’ stupid if you ask me. Why not do the sensible thing and step off the track. Fuckin’ numptees.

Lydia struggled a bit but pushed on through and we got to the top for a well deserved rest and a big bowl of noodles at the restaurant next to the temple followed by a coffee. The gardens of the temple are really worth a visit and a great place to sit and recover. I like coming here and I used to climb here once a week when I lived here, however I rarely came at the weekends because of the hoardes however I am running out of time to visit places like this as I’ll be leaving here in just under two weeks to head west before going home.

There’s a park near our apartment and yesterday we went for a wander around it. It had a certain brutalist design about it. It’s not a pretty park but more functional, mind you the trees and bushes do compliment each other although at this time of year on a driech day it’s hard to tell.

As usual, you will see fishermen where they shouldn’t be fishing and there are a few interesting signs. The sign that drew my attention the most was this one,

Was this sign telling the older folk, maybe me, that when we exercise we need to do it in an unenthusiastic way just in case we snuff it as we stroll through the gardens. Nothing worse than finding a body under a tree.

Gambling is illegal in China, there are no casinos and there are strict rules against it. We all know how crazy the Chinese are for gambling and most of the countries that border China have casinos and some are specifically for the Chinese. In Burma there are special areas within the country that are of of bounds for most apart from the Chinese, mainly because these areas are really an extention of China.

Cambodia had been infested by them, and of course now organised crime has many scams running out of here that again are run by Chinese crime gangs.

Laos has a massive casino on the banks of the Mekong built by Chinese with its own airfield I heard. Macau has many casinos also, many are similar to those in Vegas.

Now the reason for this post is that I have noticed a surge in the number of Chinese  Lottery outlets, many are now in metro stations and food halls. They are called the Chinese Welfare Lottery and I’m not sure of the prizes but I have seen many a queue of young people in buying frenzies as I’ve passed through.

The youth unemployment is at an all time high in China, the government has even stopped reporting the numbers. It seems that the Chinese youth are investing what little money they have by gambling, this is something that I never saw when I lived here because the usual clientele were an older demographic killing time. These new customers seem to have a look of desperation.

I was tired this morning, Sissi and I went out last night to see another concert of the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra and this time they played Shostakovich and what a powerful piece of music it was. It felt that we were in the middle of a battle in space somewhere, standing on the bridge of the Enterprise about to have a square go with the Klyngons. If you had a weak heart then you could have been in trouble.

After the concert I came home but Sissi stayed out with a friend and didn’t crawl home until the wee hours of the morning, I never heard a thing. So this morning she got up very late and we both decided that because it was raining we should have a lazy day. The pair of us have started to run up the 22 flights of stairs in our apartment block. Sissi had started this for over a week and I only started yesterday. We said that if we do this we can eat more, mind you this is also combined with around an average of 12 km a day.

In the end we headed out for lunch and went to the Vietnamese that we saw last night. Delicious. After which we went to the old city and got my old sandals repaired for about $10 by the old coblar sitting on the street corner, he’s been there for over 20 years I think. He stitched them back together and resoled them and he was quick and every move and cut deliberate.

We walked around the old city avoiding the busy thoroughfares and we stumbled upon a few places that neither had been to before. One fascinating place was this multistory carpark that is automated. You drive your car in on to the hoist and then it gets taken up as you will see below. Brilliant 🙏😁

Just when you think you know a city you find a whole new place to explore.

I do like the barges that you get through the Grand Canal in Suzhou, I’ve spent many a time in the past watching listening to them as they rumble on by.

Today we went to the other side of the the lake, to the west side to catch up with friends of Sissi who also run an Airbnb. They live in a very small house and they pay only $50 a week. During the week Xishan is a great place to visit to get away from the maddening crowds, but come the weekend the population increases dramatically.

The weather was beautiful, after a cold start and with the sun shining we quickly realised that we were all wearing too many clothes.

The small village we went to has a tree that is over 1000 years and it’s massive. We had lunch here up on a small deck over looking the lake.

After lunch we went for a drive around Xishan and here’s a few pictures from our day.

We headed to the west of the island just in time for the last few moments of the sun as it headed off on its journey through the underworld.

In Suzhou the easiest way to get around the city is by metro and it’s always been a great place to people watch. Today I saw two unusal things on my travels.

A young girl was reading a book amongst the many phone addicts on board. I have only seen this a handful of times when I lived here before.

Maybe a little difficult to see in this picture, but when the light caught this girls face it was very obvious just how white her face was. Her skin tone is quite dark and there is a distinct contrast. I’ve seen many young girls and women with chalk white complexions which of course is very different from the UK Trump colours and the Mission Brown tones of Australia. I find this fascinating and would love to ask them all as to why they do this because whatever the colour they seem to have the same beard line around the neck or jawline.

Today’s lunch, beef noodle soup 😍

Well it’s been a while since I’ve been here and it’s usually the bus that takes me here but now that Sissi has her driving licence we got there in style. The roads are so busy, the driving is atrocious, the Chinese just don’t have a clue. They are dangerous, they pass on the left or the right on a single laned road with hard shoulder. I gave the finger to more than one that tried to come up beside us to push through and that seemed to slow them ever so briefly. They are a bunch of selfish BASTARDS when they get behind the wheel and the biggest culprits seem to be the Tesla drivers that use the speed and performance to pull off some really crazy manoeuvres.

We went for a couple of Baozi for a snack before beginning our ascent and then made our way to the edge of the village before we headed through the fruit trees to the 24 bends which is the main challenge of the walk where so many people reach the top gasping for air.

This time however is was busier than Sauchiehall on a Saturday night. As usual everybody had been shopping at Decathlon sports shop and they had bought every conceivable item needed for a stroll. Walking sticks were very popular but this hill is no Everest and so the sticks were just another thing to lug up and down again. Mind you there did not seem to be much thought put into the footwear, most were wearing shoes that you would wear for a stroll in the park, not really designed for off road.

At the top of this section we headed onto the road to head back to 东山 and we seemed to be the only ones heading in this direction. Today was very warm, it got to over 20C which for winter is tropical and it caught many by surprise including myself. By the time I reached the top my back was soaked. On the road thankfully there was plenty of shade. There were also a lot of motorbikes flying around this twisty road that crosses 东山 so you had to keep your wits about you, these guys haven’t an understanding of road safety either because they don’t give you a wide berth, instead they hold their line and you just have to make sure you are not in their way.

I like it here, however usually I came during the week and it was very quiet and so it was a very different experience today. I might have time to come back.

The horse was just the right size for Sissi 😄

A very hazy day, the air quality was not good. My throat can testify to that. 😝

A quick wander around the old town and you will see plenty of evidence of spring, there is life everywhere.

And of course the flowers bring out the tourists in droves and even gaggles as you can see on the picture below,

And sometimes the warmer weather makes the poor policeman tired yesterday I saw him stop many street cleaners and delivery drivers.

Another hard day at the office fining poor people 🤔