Tongli, Jiangsu, China Oct.19, 2011
Water town, Marriott and Inflight meal
I visited Shanghai with my colleague to attend a business meeting held there by a reefer container manufacturer, which has a large factory in Jiangsu province. We arrived at Hongqia airport, once served international flights before another airport called Pudong International airport was inaugurated in 1999. Now it is mainly used for domestic flights. Hongqia airport is in the middle of the city near Shanghai Zoo. And it is close to Marriott Hongqia we stay this time.
The manufacture has a large factory in Jiangsu province. They invited all attendees to the tour of the factory at the last day of the meeting. We left the hotel for the factory on a bus with other attendees after breakfast. Heading to north west by an express way, we reached the factory in about two hours. After watching the factory, we left for a place called Tongli, small beautiful town with the canal.
We visited Tuisi Garden, which means “withdraw and reflect garden” in Chinese. It was a retirement home of a Qing Dynasty’s official in the 1900s. You can see carps swimming in the pond from the second floor of the house. It must be wonderful to see foliage of the trees listening to birds chirping, sipping hot coffee in an early morning. During the stay in Shanghai, I had no chance to walk around other than this. So I enjoyed this occasion very much.
What I have to mention about this trip is, I stayed Marriott. This is my second time to stay the hotel chain. Last time I stayed was way 20 years ago at Boston, Massachusetts. I remember I enjoyed the stay last time. And I enjoyed myself by friendly hotel staff.
I like eating. That is one of the joys during the travel. Every time I travel, I make sure to try to eat something local. I stayed in the hotel all the days this time except the short trip to Tongli. I do not remember what I ate this time. What I did not understand is they do not drink beer cold in China. Even at the restaurant in the hotel, they serve warm beer. They say cold drink and food is not good for your health. Maybe the refrigeration is not widely available throughout the county. Cold beer will be people’s favorite somedays. Let’s show you the picture of inflight meal on my flight to Shanghai by Shanghai Airlines. I was able to drink a cold beer. Now looking back the trip, that was good enough for me.
