Where is your passport?

One of the rules here is that you travel with your passport at all times. Locally I do not, but I do have a photocopy of the important pages in the that I take when I am leaving the campus. So far I have not forgotten to take the "real" passport when I leave.

We have also just been issued with "identity cards" - no instructions, but again, I think we must carry them with us.

Yesterday being Friday was our usual night for dining out, but we had been out the night before, so I was less inclined to go again. So I decided to go to Carrefour Supermarket in the afternoon, do a little shopping and come home and stay home. Alone.

I had not heard my cellphone ring while in Carrefour but just after I climbed into the bus with my bag of goodies, I heard it ring. It was one of the teachers who had gone to Suzhou for the weekend. Two of them had gone together and surprisingly they had both forgotten their passports. As they were approaching their destination city, they knew that they could not book into their hotel without their passport. Suzhou is around 3 hours bus trip from Shaoxing, so they were quite panicked.

There was not much I could do on the bus, but I agreed to see what I could arrange - when I arrived back at the campus, which was at least 30 minutes away. While I was talking I must have dropped my good leather glove - I had one with me, but had taken the other off to answer the phone, and when the call finished I hunted everywhere for it. In my bags, on the seat, it was nowhere to be seen. I was a little annoyed.

As I was getting off the bus, I found it near the stairs. It must have fallen, or been brushed off my lap by a passenger going past me, and fallen. Anyway, I was pleased to pick it up!

I had to buy bananas on the way near the West Gate, so did so, and was soon in the apartment. I rang the teachers and got more details and then tried to contact the Director of International Exchange. By this time it was well after 5.30 pm, and I knew she would not be in her office, so I phoned her at home and related the story.

Fortunately her apartment is not far from her office and she was able to go to the office, find the copies of the passports and fax them to the hotel in Suzhou. But there were more phone calls. One of the passports did not come through clearly, so I had to recall her from her apartment again. Luckily I was just the "go-between" so she has no reason to be annoyed with me!

And so it appears that the teachers will be able to enjoy their weekend.

Here it is necessary to take one's passport with them to show the hotel. The PBS like to know where aliens/foreigners are. It can be quite a hassle if one loses their passport here. Always a good idea to have several photocopies of it.

I reasoned I was not "meant" to have gone out with the other three teachers - as I would not have been able to assist the ladies in Suzhou.

Photos from Suzhou

There are several famous gardens in Suzhou - we visited The Lingering Garden.

Day Tour to Suzhou

On one of the tours from Shanghai we went to Suzhou, an ancient water city. It was a very long day but well worth the visit. The ancient city of Suzhou had lots to see, and our tour guide was very helpful with the information of this part of China. These old water cities are amazing - and as Australia has such a short history (well, we have no cities much over 200 years!), I am always fascinated by these old cities and villages that go back some thousands of years.

In Suzhou we visited the remnants of an old village and an old wall that once upon a time a long time ago, surrounded a village and kept the enemy out. It was all very beautiful. In the walk to the area there were several traders selling all sorts of old items - trying to entice the tourists to spend more money. There were some items decorated with people in different sex positions, and Chairman Mao's Little Red Book was on sale too.

There are several famous gardens in Suzhou and we went to one which was very beatufiul. As well there were beautiful young girls playing their instruments in various pavillions around the gardens. Everything so beautiful.