My parents, my husband and I went to Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou for four days in a packaged tour. The weather was best for touring round - fine and sunny. Even we wore very thick and warm clothes. The temperature was between 3 and 10 degrees.

Here are the pictures I have chosen from the 5 rolls of film we took.

Cheng Huang Miao was and meant "a temple in the town" but it was converted as a shopping and restaurants area in 1994. Some very old restaurants are still in operation. The most famous one is Nanxiang which sells xiaolungbao - a steamed juicy pork dumpling. It is served with red vinegar and shredded ginger. The most expensive kind of xiaolungbao is stuffed with fresh crab meat.

After enjoying the food at Cheng Huang Miao, we went to a Buddhist Temple, Yufo Si in the city. There are two precious jade buddha statues. They were made in late 19th century.

We went to Pudong, the eastern bank of huangpu River and took some picutres there, but the flash of the camera was not strong enough to take photos at dusk. Later we walked through Nanjing Street which is a shopper's street and towards the end, there we were at the Bund, Haungpu Waitan.

The very European buildings were the legacy of the shameful colonial history of Shanghai in the late 19th and early 20th century. On the opposite bank of Huangpu is the modern skyscapers.

There are still some old western buildings well-kept in the city centre and it is called as Xintiandi, which means New World. It was converted into an area of cafes, pubs and bars where many foreigners enjoy themselves there at night. The buildings were built by very wealthy Shanghainese in the 20s and 30s.

We headed to Suzhou to look at its ancient architecture and gardens. It is about 1 1/2 hour bus journey to there. We had lunch on the bank of The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canel. It was contructed in the 7th century A.D.

In Suzhou, we visited Zhuozheng Yuan, the Humble Administrator's Garden, Han Shan Temple and Guanqian Shopper's Street. The next day we visited a silk product factory and I bought some clothes for Chinese New Year.

The design of Chinese gardens here is very different from the royal gardens in Beijing because the gardens in Suzhou were designed by scholar-poet-painters who were not satisfied with the political struggles in their time. The layout of the gardens is usually asymmetrical which is a contrast with the symmetrical design of royal gardens.

After visiting Han Shan Temple, we went to Tongli which is an ancient town like Venice. Small canels are found and we had a boat trip there. Then we had lunch there and enjoyed its famous dish Zhuangyuan Ti, stewed knuckle.

It took us less than 4 hours to travel from Suzhou to Hangzhou. The must-see is of course Xihu, the West Lake. The natural landscape and ancient architecture are heavenly matched. The 3 sides of the Lake are Chinese paintings.

There is so much to look at in these three modern and ancient cities. I will go there again to look at places in detail and visit other places recommended by many travel books.