Weekend In Sozhou China

OK all knowing forum, I am Suzhou China this weekend. Probably will be in Shanghai next weekend. What are the must do and see things? Also I do not speak any Chinese.

 

See if you can buy something that's made in America. :up:

 

I try to do that in Ohio and have a hard time buying American. Might not have any better luck over here. Maybe the Walmarts over here have american made stuff.

 

From what I hear there are 2 things. Take a picture of the LongDong expressway sign and visit a "karaoke" bar.

 

I've never been to Suzhou, but Shanghai is awesome.

Just be warned, if you've never been, you'll probably be sick as a dog from the pollution. You should be staying at an American hotel. They have cards for you to give to a cab driver for getting around.

I walked the streets of Shanghai almost every night. I never found any night life, just a girl whose only English was "sucky, sucky," which cracked me up because I thought that was a movie-only thing. I didn't take her up on her offer, I'm not that type of a person. Plus, you get the impression that there's a tough police force some where close by.

But the Shanghai Zoo really is awesome. They have red panda's walking free. There's a Bentley dealer, I think by "Big Ben." Motorcycle dealerships are a trip.

If you're single, there are a lot of girls in Shanghai and they LOVE Americans. I was with my wife and getting a lot of attention from girls. If you do end up with a guide, there's places he has to take you, like the pearl factory. Go to the shit that he wants you to see, then get ideas on American friendly places you can go. Both of my guides were cool and were thankful that you were willing to do their bull shit so they can get paid.

Also, because you'll be sick as a dog from the pollution, you might want to hit up McDonald's for a milk shake. They don't have them. They don't have English menus either, so you have to order by picture. The entire menu looks the same. But for hotel snakes, candy bar with chocolate taste so much better because the chocolate's not as sweet. Lays has awesome cucumber potato chips and Inca chips are great.

Also, if you have to buy something, a salesperson will wait on you and hand you a ticket. You take the ticket to the register to pay and then the first salesperson gives you your item.

Pick up some cough and cold medicine now. Finding a western pharmacy was tough

 

Oh yeah, force yourself to poop at the hotel before you leave the hotel for the day.

 

Find a McDonalds. You probably already know, the chinese food you get there sure ain't the same as what you get at the Golden Jade up the street from your house.

 

In China, Pizza Hut > McDonald's.

In the states, I rather stay hungry.

 

where is McDonalds NOT terrible food that sucks? KFC is better than American KFC too. also bargain for anything at any market, REAL retail stores don't bargain tho. we found nightlife a plenty in Shanghai, but then i had friends who had been there before so i already had an idea where to go. its the same anywhere tho... in Nanjing, we just wandered around at night, we saw some girls that looked all hookerish, but not hookers, like they just came from a club, asked them where the club was, they pointed, it was just like an American club, english hip hop and all.

the Bund is cool at night, and lots of ex-pats down there too, meaning also a bunch of bars/restaurants with people that speak English in them. wandered into a super high end politician/gangster massage place by accident cause my boy was curious. a usual massage is like $25 from some place, these were $500... and accompanied by 30 dudes in all black standing outside smoking next to their all black bentleys and mercedes so i got the fuck out of there real quick since we weren't buying and just window shopping.

beggars will ask you for shit CONSTANTLY, its annoying as fuck. that's the price you pay for going to places with a bunch of english shit, they know you're there too.

Yu Garden is cool as shit (for cultural stuff), go there.

just wander around and see what you see, i never felt unsafe on the streets at night ever. me and my two buddies sat out on a curb and ate street food a bunch of nights just chillin with mad random people. also i found a korean restaurant one night that was bomb as shit, also it was cool cause i can read and kinda speak korean, so i was able to order something NOT like a child pointing at pictures for once.

 

no shit

the Pizza Huts in Asia are like 4 star restaurants

 

Do they have hookers and blow there ?

 

Hookers and scotch there. Blow will get you sent in for reeducation.

 

I spent a month working in Suzhou. There isn't much to do in terms of touristy things unless you like gardens and stuff or KTV's. We did find a "good" mexican/american place to eat. Zapatas. There are also some decent americanized eateries around that restaurant too.

 

The Pringles in the mini-bar are proudly made in the USofA.

 

Had a friend go there during school. There are a number of really good bars, one is called ice or something and they give you a jacket when you walk in, because the place is like 20 degrees F inside. All of the bars(except the "american" bars) are like 20US to get in and unlimited drinks. Have fun!!

Crap, this was for Shanghai...

 

lol. I was about to say... I don't remember anything like that in Suzhou. I can't imagine students intentionally going to Suzhou unless they're studying manufacturing.

 

Dave "Ski" Sadowski runs a track day facility at the Shanghai circuit where they used to run MotoGP (IIRC). Rent a bike and ride a GP track! :up:

-jim

 

Never been to Suzhou, but spent a week in Shanghai. Shanghai is an amazing place, I spent every night just walking around and looking at all of the crazy sky scrapers. I forget how many they claimed they had, but it's a mind-boggling number. What is also really cool is that 1/2 of them didn't exist 20 years ago.

I stayed at the JW Marriot in Huangpu, on like the 3* floor (can't remember how many floors it had, but I was 2 from the top). It was awesome, had a Ferrari and Maserati dealer attached to it. The skyline is amazing, and if you don't stay in a tall hotel, I highly recommend going up in the Oriental Pearl Tower In Pudong, you can see for miles (and all you see are buildings, Shanghai is UNBELIEVABLY large).

As mentioned before, girls there will love you. I don't know how many I had come up to me and talk to me. Many of them were obviously hookers (hooking is huge over there, and they know Americans have money, at least our money is worth way more than theirs) but many of them wanted just to talk and practice their English. I was there earlier this year, and I actually experienced most people in the city speaking pretty good English, at least understandable. Getting around there is also pretty easy because they have street signs in both Chinese characters, and the english spelling of the term. If you stay at a decent hotel, expect for hookers to be hanging out at the bar picking up guys.

One thing I have to mention is that the Chinese are extremely nice people, at least to your face. As a stereotype, I used to think they were all pricks, but after having been over there, they were all very nice, very accommodating, very polite, etc etc. I don't know what they say when they are amongst themselves, they may bitch about the tourists when alone, but in public they were very friendly.

Last thing, do not be afraid of their food. The food in Shanghai was amazing, I ate at Pizza Hut once, but was out at all the authentic restaurants the rest of the time. REAL Chinese food is different than the good ole China Buffet, but it is very good nevertheless. One of the Best meals I had was at a Howard Johnson Hotel restaurant. Apparently Ho-Jo's are extremely nice hotels over there.

Have fun and take LOTS of pictures.

Oh, and there is no Facebook in China...

 

walked around until about 11 last night lots of checked out a few shopping malls, I think there is a girlie bar around the corner form the hotel. There is a papa johns, subway, KFC and a Pizza hut within a 1 block of the hotel. Going to go for a long walk around the city in a few minutes. So far I have only seen one gas scooter but it had a pipe and Rossi's #46 on it.
The electric scooters must work pretty good they are everywhere.

 

Staying in the renaissance hotel?