Chinese Life outside Shanghai
After buying a train ticket to Xi’an, my friend from Shanghai wanted to take me outside the city to get a different perspective on Chinese life. We headed for an adventure in the town of Tongli which is about 90KM from Shanghai.
Tongli is such a sharp contrast from Shanghai. It was great to get a different view of China. Tongli has canals and open air buildings constructed from stone. We walked around the town and took a boat ride in the canals.
Including myself, I think I counted about 10 western tourists in town. I could sense that the pace of life was alot slower here with people sitting outside cafes that lined the canal, hearing people playing mahjong with friends, or seeing people waiting for customers to come inside their shops.
I stopped in a few stores. At an embroidery store, I tried to bargain the price down from 50RMB. The owner was unwilling and I left the store. At another store with similar items, my friend bargained the owner down to 2 items for 50 RMB and told me the offer. In my best Mandarin, I countered – “liang ge si shi wu zenme yang?” meaning how about 2 for 45 RMB?. The shopkeeper looked a little stunned at first, then laughed, and finally said OK. Victory was mine. 
I left Tongli with my friend and headed towards Suzhou for the Humble Administrator’s Garden. I admit that I could have skipped these gardens, but maybe that was because I was tired from the activities of the day. After walking around the gardens, we headed back to Shanghai.
It was nice to get out of the busy activity of the city and escape to a smaller town to get an idea of what life might be like. This is another reason I decided to travel within China by train – to get an idea of what life outside the city is like.
Note: Currently, I’m in Beijing. I’m keeping an offline journal of my activities on my 2 week trip to China. I’m a little behind in posting content, but promise once I return to the U.S. that I will post photos and the activities I’m writing about in the journal
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