Free Weekend Away
I wanted to post this for a while now:
Several weeks ago, I was able to enjoy a free weekend trip! Some friend’s friend of M-J runs a tourist company, and they offered some “foreign friends” a free trip to two old towns in China.
The thing was that that company actually wanted to bring some visitors (so called “foreign buyers”) to a textile exhibition in Textile City, an enormous area where an incredible amount of textile is produced every year. So me and some friends went along and enjoyed a weekend full of long bus rides, touristy “old” towns and a free night at a 5-star hotel!
On saturday morning we met somewhere in Nanjing to take the bus, it took us 5 hours to get to the first town.
It was located at some waterway, and we visited an “old” rice-wine brewery there:
Unfortunately we could not try some for free, and I did not want to pay for anything.
In the small alleys of this town we also found a textile production facility, which produced blue-and-white textile according to a very old process: Firstly some white something was applied to the white textile through a paper model, which looked like this:
Then the prepared cloth was put into basins full of an intense blue color, extracted from some plants. The patterns were really elaborate, and all those long stretches of cloth that were drying in the wind looked nice. Did I say that the weather was terrific?
Quite remarkable were the shapes of some doors I found there, have a look!
I wonder why anyone would design doors like this… 
Another amazing thing were the intricate woodcarvings which the buildings were decorated with, the most beautiful was this one:
We were in a rush, so after some enjoyable hours we were brought to our amazing hotel.
I did not take any pictures there, I was way too busy enjoying the dinner and our rooms. I could not remember when the last time that I had lain in a real bathtub had been, so I could not resist… When I got out after an hour and put on the cozy bathrobes, it felt like heaven.
Those bathrobes were so comfy that five of our group decided to wear (only!) them to the KTV place… Hilarious! (karaoke-TV, which is HUGE in China).
We ended up having our private party there until late, but I was soooo tired that I left around 1.
After the breaktfast buffet we were brought to the textile exhibition, which was not really worth mentioning. We spent only one hour there, and we had to pretend to be foreigners (easy) that were interested in buying textiles (hard).
The opening ceremony was quite nice, and we had a good time there.
Rebeka (Slovenia), André (US) and Tjasa (Slovenia)
After that we visited another “famous” small town, but by then we were quite exhausted.
The only thing worth mentioning was another weird door we found. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture without me posing weirdly…
Totally exhausted we climbed on the bus back home, and somewhere around midnight we arrived in Nanjing.
Although there were some annoying bus rides, this weekend was big fun, and you can’t beat the price…
The main reason for this trip being so enjoyable can be seen on the next picture, thanks to all four of you! 
M-J (GB), Jolien (Belgique), Package (Slovenia) and Tjasa (idem)
17 comments
Yes! Kus van mama
Mmmm? Any reason why you where less than casual dressed?
We were supposed to be dressed formally…
Viele liebe Nikolausgrüße nach China! Der Nikolaus kommt leider auch verspätet in Nanjing an. Sein Gefährt ist leider krank/kaputt, da muss er jetzt per Schiff nach China. Das dauert ein bisschen länger. Aber ich soll schonmal liebe Grüße sagen.
Bis Bald,
kuss
Lieber heiliger Nikolaus,
komm doch heut in unser Haus,
Lehr uns an die Armen denken,
laß uns teilen und verschenken,
Zeig uns, wie man fröhlich gibt,
wie man hilft und wie man liebt.
Danke mein Spatz, wie süß!
Ich freue mich auf seine Ankunft.
Hé Roelof!
Het lijkt ons erg leuk en mooi daar! Vanavond is het A-Eskwadraat pooltoernooi, we zullen voor je winnen! Net als het zaalvoetbaltoernooi dit jaar, met maar één tegendoelpunt 
Mooie foto’s en verhalen heb je allemaal! Wordt je nog wel een beetje bruin daar
Groeten Sabine en Jacob
Het is nu wel winter, dus het koud en het regent…
Succes vanavond!! En gefeliciteerd met de zege, volgend jaar doe ik weer mee.
Groet, Roelof
hej mal wieder viele schicke sachen erlebt mh?
Weihnachts-/Geburtstagspäckchen mit laaaaanger Berichterstattung aus der Heimat ist unterwegs ^^ *knuffl* lass es dir gut gehen!!
Happy Birthday!!!
Lieber Roelof,
ich wünsche dir einen wunderschönen Tag! Nächste Woche werden wir deinen Geburtstag auch noch mal nachfeiern!
Eine ganz dicke Umarmung!
*kuss*
Deine Mareike
Hartelijk gefeliciteerd! Ik hoop dat het in China dik vieren is geblazen. Maak er iets moois van. Toen ik vanmorgen opstand was je al een kwart dag jarig. Gek deze keer ben je vroeger jarig dan dat wij het kunnen vieren
Knuffel van Pa
Happy Birthday!
Ich wünsch Dir einen wunderschönen Geburtstag! Genieß den Tag und mach was besonderes draus!
Ganz viiiele liebe Grüße!
Pass auf dich auf!
Lieber Roelof
heute kann es regnen, stürmen oder schnein *sing*,
denn du strahlst ja selber wie der sonnenschein,
heut ist dein Geburtstag darum feiern wir (in fern und nah)
alle deine freunde freuen sich mit dir, alle deine freunde freuen sich mit dir*sing*
natürlich auch in Wiesbaden also alles Liebe und Gute nach fernost^^ bevors nun an den refrain kommt *räusper*
wie schön dass du geboren bist wir hätten dich sonst sehr vermisst wie schön das wir im blog beisammen sind wir gratulieren dir geburtstagskind *g* (auch in deinem alter) *knuffl*
Hey Roeloef!!
Gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag! Pas op met het Chinese vuurwerk..
Stefan en Jacob hebben donderdag trouwens het pooltoernooi gewonnen!
Spreek je snel weer!
allet jute und liebe zum purzeltag lieber roelof und ganz viele grüße aus wiesbaden.
ich mag deine seite und lese gerne geschichten von nah und fern. weiterhin viele schöne erlebnisse in fernost!
fühl dich gedrückt,
nora
Danke danke danke!
Ich hatte einen tollen Geburtstag.
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