After a long but uneventful flight to Shanghai, we started our tour through Gate 1 Travel. This is a completely new experience for us and I will say: so far, so good. After having spent two days touring, I can definitely say that we made the right choice. Navigating on your own in China would be extremely difficult and it is wonderful to have someone getting us from point A to point B. Meals (for the most part) are taken care of, which is great because menus here are not written in English. I do miss being able to set our own pace but the trade off is worth it. Now, if I could only sleep at night. . .

I am very glad that I have T-Mobile cellular service which gives us internet access. I found out when we arrived that I cannot access Gmail in China and of course, no Facebook. But, I can access both using my cell service. Go T-Mobile! On the downside, Nord VPN does not work on iOS. I normally travel with my laptop (Nord VPN’s obfuscated server works with it) so was assuming that it would also work with my iPad. No go. Oh, well!

On our first day of touring, we visited the Jade Buddha Temple and the Bund. Shanghai, China

Our second day was spent in Suzhou, the Venice of the Orient.Suzhou, China

Today, we will be touring more of Shanghai before flying to Yichan to catch a 4-day Yangtze River cruise.