Day 9 Saturday 4th May

We were up very early today because once again it was a public holiday and large crowds were expected at the places we would be visiting. We were driven to the mountains to visit the Meijiawu tea Village, where tea is grown and then visited a local tea house. We learnt much about the production of tea before being shown an array of tea products we could buy, especially green tea supplements which seem to be a cure-all for just about everything. We were very glad we went early as the air seemed fresh and we felt like we were out in the country and that is something we have not experienced on this trip. We then hopped on the coach and drove as close as we were allowed to visit the beautiful West Lake Park. We walked for about 20 minutes to the park and then had a lovely boat ride on the lake. This was quite beautiful and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The G20 summit was held here with leaders from all over the world attending so you can imagine how beautiful this area was. Following lunch (I never thought I would get sick of eating Chinese Food….but all our meals at the Hotels etc have been very similar and served with steamed rice), we drove to the next huge city, Shanghai (28 million). After settling in to our hotel we went to Starbucks for dinner so we could have a sandwich and then to a show called Intersection of Time. This was a fabulous show with acrobats, magicians, plate-spinners etc. entertaining us.