-- From Nanjing to Hangzhou

The morning of the 14/08 was occupied while visiting the museum of Nanjing of which the outside of the building reproduces a Chinese traditional house. It is organized in rooms sets of themes, the lacquer, the porcelain, the terra cotta, gibes etc. We left after lunching to Wuxi in order to bivouac in the park of the Turtle Head Isle indicated by JC Griffoin. The night was awfully hot with a moisture higher than 75%.

The road tracklog 
from Nanjing to Hangzhou 
from the 15/08/2006 to the 20/08/2006 

Arrived in after midday of the 15/08 in Suzhou, we sought a place of shaded bivouac close to a hotel for the two other teams. After being refused we established the bivouac on the carpark of New Century Silk where there was a hotel.
The following day, I visited the sublimate Master of the Nets Garden as well as a silk factory. I had at the time of my journey in 1982 to visit such a factory.  It was more authentic than that presented now at the tourists. Indeed it was a question of a spinning frame silk as of a weaving loom in air-conditioned rooms, of course in 1982 it was not the case. I thought that the real factory was not to have evolved but it was not any more politically correct to show it.
In the end afternoon we left to Zhouzhuang to visit the water city.

The Garden of the Master of the Nets 
Suzhou 
16/08/2006 

The 17/08 I visited Zhouzhuang, it is neither Venice, nor Brugge even less Port Grimaud. The old city is a water town of fishermen transformed into in situ museum for tourists. The entrance of the city is controlled by counters. The price of the ticket included the visit of the monuments, museums and patriarchal residences. The streets are bordered of stores for tourists and gravers presenting the old craft industry and trades, spinning and weaving of cotton, dinandery, ironwork etc

The water town 
Zhouzhuang 
17/08//2006 

The water town 
Zhouzhuang 
17/08/2006 

We took again the road the 17/08 at the beginning of afternoon to Shanghai where we established our bivouac on the carpark indicated by JC Griffoin. The price had been multiplied by four time!  The city, economic lung of China, counted approximately 17 million inhabitants. The walk through Huaihai road, Nanjing road, the Bund showed that here more than in Beijing, China had entered by full foot into the consumer society. The museum exhibits on three floors remarkable collections of bronze, ceramics, painting, jade etc. The one hour cruising on the river was a great moment by giving an excellent outline of the city. Its localization at the mouth of the Huangpu river made the temperature bearable due to a good breeze from the large.

The bank vis-a-vis the Bund 
Shanghai 
18/08/2006 

The Bund, Peace Hotel 
Shanghai 
19/08/2006 

The Yu garden is located in the old Chinese city entirely restored for the happiness of the tourists,…, Chinese. It is composed with kiosks, houses, lakes and rivers scheduled according to strict rules. But it does not have the discrete charm of the Suzhou's gardens.

The Yu Garden
Shanghai 
19/08/2006 

We took again the road 19/08 in the middle of the afternoon to Hangzhou. Towards 18:00 we stopped to bivouac at a service area on the highway. We remained two half-days in Hangzhou which were moments of rest at the edge of the West Lake.

The West lake 
Hangzhou 
20/08/2006 

The following week was occupied by the way towards Wuhan with the visit of the Huang Shan mountain close to Tangkou.