But at first we had to celebrate the farewell for Regina (hey, 7 weeks is really a long time). So we went to the nepalesian indian Restaurant, which also includes a jazz bar and Shisha after dinner. Pretty cool, isn't it?
But what is a Stephan doing alone in China the whole time. Working is the plan during the week, but the weekends. What about visiting the Zoo and take a close look to the Panda bears. Sounds great, jump on the bike and riding in the direction of downtown.
Getting to the Zoo isn't that easy. Everywhere are construction yards and roads closed due to the Subway construction. So I had to go through PingJianLu and this is only possible with several stops for pictures.
But now hurry up to the Zoo, buying the ticket and blow into. Well, buying the ticket wasn't any problem, but where is the entrance and where is the Zoo at all? The only thing which looked promising was a kind of amusement park. Nobody wanted to see my ticket, but maybe it's the right direction.....
In the Park there was some advertising for an early MBA. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but MBA means in my opinion "Master of Business Administration", right? How old should you be for such an title? 4 years? 5 years? Well, in this age everything is strictly managed and organized, as you can see.
But at least there are some kids in the lucky position to act as kids and just have fun.
So, everything is pretty funny here, but where is the Zoo? Finding some E-Boats gave a hint to the other side of the canal. And hurray!, yes, when I tried walking over the bridge somebody wanted to check my ticket. Yiiieeehaaaa, found it.
Where are the Pandas? Well, first of all, Suzhou is the city of the gardens. This means, that the Zoo is also a big garden. Maybe there are also some animals hidden by co-incidence. But I'm a pretty good pathfinder, so let's keep on walking. The kids in the "zoo" looked pretty happy, so everything should be fine, shouldn't it?
After another 45 minutes the first light at the end of the tunnel: Some cages with real animals in!
More fun than watching the animals is watching the visitors. Glasses without lenses is so chinese
The animals got bigger and bigger, the longer I was hiking, but still no Panda bears. Is it all fake and they painted some white marks to black bears and call it Panda at the end?
No fake Pandas but also no real ones in the whole Zoo. And for this I was hiking and searching for four hours. After asking a lot of people I found somebody who explained to me, that the Panda bear is on his way back to his original Zoo since 2 days. It was only given as a loan. Well, at least I was in the fresh air and had some fun.
After a day like this there is only one thing left to do: Having a massage. But it wouldn't be China if there aren't some changes in the plans. This night was "chill out night" at Liz's place. Some snacks, some drinks and just having fun.
So the first weekend alone in China wasn't that bad. During the week there is nothing to tell about, just work. Well one thing is maybe worth to be told: there is no "motivating factor" waiting at home to call it an early day at work. And maybe the fast food - ok, forget it, bygones....
On the way home from the Barstreet, we spotted a small way which looked quite interesting and promising to visit. So Saturday morning seems the right time to check it out.
There is still the real old Suzhou. Small ways, all generations under one roof, no toilet or kitchen in the houses. Just real China. And everybody is selling something - or everything.
Fresh food and next to it 2nd hand furniture, everything is available. Who needs a supermarket?
This time I planned the weekend more carefully and scheduled the massage for Sunday morning. So I was able to get the first fondue in China ever. Dahliana was on a mission for the fondue set since a long long time. To make a long story short, it was hilarious and really delicious.
As the weather was really good most of the time, I spend a lot of time at the lake on the weekends. Always equipped with a book and a camera.
Sweets and a boat ride is also standard program like the photographs with the relatives.
Playing with the kites is also very trendy. During this time of the year there is the best wind for the kites at all, so everybody is walking around with a kite string in the hand.
All people are same in china, even if the clothes are different. But on the weekend at the lake it's unimportant. Just the nice weather is important.
Pick nick, riding a bike, playing the Frisbee or having fun with some water games, there is nothing impossible.
There is only the story of the marriage photographs to tell. It's really a pester at the lake. At least 5 different couples are in parallel running around with a big group of escort. The photographers are arguing with people running through the picture, the bride has to put on cosmetics every 2 minutes and everybody is watching and commenting the set up.
At the end of this long page I put just two portraits of the lake tourists in, which were a little bit suspicious with this laowai taking pictures.....
That's it for today, what Regina did in Germany, how Stephans short trip to Germany ended and what stories to be told from the last couple of days is a complete other story........
To flirt...
... and getting closer is only possible in the fresh air in
the park....
