Weekend in Wuxi.

"无锡锡山山有锡, 锡已采尽称无锡"

In short, the above is the gist of how the province of Wuxi got its name and 锡 is actually a kind of mineral! Interesting i must say, something which i would never know if i hadn't gone on the guided tour.

Not wanting to waste our weekends here in China, 4 of us decided to make a short impromptu trip to Wuxi over the past weekend! Having gotten our tickets from the bus station, we took a 45 mins ride to Wuxi, where we then attempted to look for a hotel to stay for the nite.

It was totally unplanned, but it turned out to be really fun! The very first place we visited was China's MEGA sporting chain store, Decathlon!

As we will be travelling up to Beijing to celebrate Chinese New Year, all of us decided to invest in a decent backpacking bag, since none of us brought any lugguage for short trips. So yup, though all of us left the store RMB200 poorer, we were pretty happy cause we really got ourselves a pretty good deal!

As Decathlon was really far away from city central, it was already quite late by the time we were done, hence it was back to the hotel for a nite's rest in preparation for the next day!

We had booked a guided tour package from the hotel where we stayed in so off we went at 8.30am the very next morning!

First up was 蠡园, one of the nicer gardens i've been to thus far! and as with most gardens in China, almost every rock and pavilion has its own little story! And here we see(in my opinion) one of the nicest spots in the garden!

From the garden, we then proceeded to visit 中央电视台电影城, the very place where numerous feudal era tv serials were filmed! What really made this place unqiue was that the entire ancient city was built and replicated from actualy ancient structures and buildings! From the sprawling majestic palaces, to the poetic gardens that you see on television; you name it, they probably have it!

The last place major place of interest we went to was 太湖, one of the 5 biggest lakes in China:;5 times the size of Singappore! imagine that!

Alas, due to unforeseen circumstances, my poor F30 ran out of battery juice! gaaarh. and so here is a picture, courtesy of Shuqin's camera, taken whilst enroute to one of the offshore island in 太湖.

A weekend with friends and a weekend well spent! Thanks for the laughter and the fun times! Looking forward to the Beijing trip! =)