So, where are all these places you staid in China and why did you pick them?
As has been said elsewhere, strangely the itinerary for this trip was created from nots. I was not going to Beijing etc and I soon discovered that I did not want to spend the time necessary to travel to the far ends of China. There is a direct Boston Shanghai flight, so that was a go.
Always my main travel goal is to try to better understand the local people. What can I do with them? Ride a bike, bird watch, play go, visit sights. I tried to put together a China trip that involved a week of each of the above and failed so I came up with a new rubric, find a small Inn where they speak English and hope that they can help me bike, play go, bird, learn.
The first such place I found was Skywells in Wuyuan. The co-owner, Ed, even answered by emails and suggested places. Wuyuan is about 3 hours west of Shanghai. I had a listing for a Go school from the American Go Association. It was in Wuhan, a couple hours more to the West. Ed suggested a couple other places, one in She County. My research said it looked fine but when I finally got around to booking it, Ed and I could not find it! So I ended up with Wendy in the same area. Wendy did not do a lot of communicating but I had confidence that she spoke English. Turned out later that Ed and his mother had even stayed in Wendy’s September Inn. Ed came up with an article about some hikes in Shaoxing. I knew I wanted to visit a large city called Hangzhou that had a lake where Chinese vacationed and I wanted to visit the “water” towns near Shanghai and choose to do so from Suzhou. Then of course there was Shanghai.
A Chinese woman I met at Skywells, who spoke near perfect English, was frustrated that I could not tell her where I was going in China. There are so many Xs, Zs,Hangs that even if I could remember the general spelling of a city, I had no way of pronouncing it.
But, back to the Itinerary. Wuhan is a mega city. 11 Million. And it is referred to as one of the four furnaces of central China. It was hot and I had to change cloths every time I returned to the hotel but the air conditioning was powerful and the shower refreshing. The city seemed full of young couples and pulsing energy.
Next was Wuyuan or rather Ed’s Skywells Inn, Google it. The town where Ed and Selina created there Inn is actually called Yan. The larger town next door is called Sixi. The area is about 1/2 way between Wuhan and Shanghai. It is pretty remote for this part of China. Really small town, set up as a preserved village by the government.
Next was Shexian. Wendy’s September Hui zhou Homestay is in a protected part of a larger city (1/2 million?). The protected part is called Huizhou Ancient City, not to be confused with Huizhou, which has a population of 5 million. Wendy directed me to roads along rivers through small towns and I just road a bike all day.
I have been staying 4 nights in Wuhan and Skywells, now I am down to 3 nights each place until the final 6 in Shanghai. Next was Shaoxing. It is very close to the big resort lake city Hangzhou where I went next, Shaoxing again has an Ed connection. He had sent me a couple articles about hiking and this was the closest town. I was the most worried of all the towns about the accommodations here. Shaoxing Laotaimen Luxun Native Place Youth Hostel just sounded a little below my comfort level but I took a “family room” with a private bathroom and it was indeed fine. Again, right in the middle of a “historic” area, canals everywhere. And they are really focused on Yellow Rice Wine.
On to Hangzhou. Suzhou and Shaoxing are actually just to the left and right of Hangzhou, so I never traveled far in these last 15 days. Hangzhou’s main feature is the West Lake. For the first time the xpat presence really kicks in. And great beer bars! Smallish hotel, on the 5th-13th floor of a large building but my first modern hotel since Wuhan. With just 3 nights per town, that really means I have an arrival day, 2 full days and then an exit day. I spent my full days just riding busses around the lake drinking beer and looking for a tourist office that I never found!
In Suzhou I was in a real modern hotel. I was able, with the help of a desk clerk, to find a bike shop and road both days around lakes in the town. The idea was to use Suzhou as a staging place to visit 2 of the many “Water Towns”: lots of canals. But, after a visit to Tongli, I realized I had been living in water towns that were real towns and this one had a Disneyland feel. Again great beer bars and people to talk to.
Lastly to Shanghai for 6 days. There really never was a plan to stay longer in Shanghai. I just came up like one town short and so had 3 extra days. Plan A called for me to freelance it coming back from Wuhan and stay places I had liked again but in the end I just left the days in a Shanghai pile. Shanghai is a world class city. There are xpats on every block. I road my bike with shop rides the first 2 days and have done a lot of beering and a little museuming for the remaining 4. Typhone Mitag gave me a day of rain. On the streets, the number of Chinese women wearing flats and standing 6ft tall is very different from the China I have seen.
Hopefully the above gives one a little context. 4 Days in a furnace with no tourists, 4 days in an idilic country home, 3 days in an ancient city, 3 more in another one, then a resort city, next a staging town for water town visits and lastly Shanghai.