Saturday pm

We take the opportunity to spend a few hours away from the Hall, and
take a taxi into the centre of Suzhou. Where we've been so far this
week has been `new China' - lots of new buildings and wide roads and
dust. Old Suzhou is definitely different, with small sreets and tiny
shops. And people. Lots and lots of people. Some on foot, some in
cars, some on bicycles, and many on those silent electric scooters
that are the most terrifying to a pedestrian. Traffic management
seems to boil down to `keep going, use horn, and hope that somebody
backs down before a collision'. I'm amazed that it sort-of seems to
work.

The Humble Administrator's Garden in the centre is possibly the most
famous garden in China, and is an oasis of tranquillity; despite all
the other tourists that you share it with. We grab a late lunch in a
small cafe, and a taxi back to the Expo. There most of the
competitors have finished - only those in the Finals will be competing
the next day - and there's a bit of a party atmosphere developing.
Although there has been a lot of intense competition between the teams
it's all been friendly rivalry, and now people are swapping notes and
compliments, and talking about how they would like to see each of
their individual events evolve for next year. We also take the opportunity
to take a team photo of the three of us in our Oxford shirts.

There's a `banquet' in the early evening - just a very large buffet
really, given the numbers of participants. The prizes for the Junior
Leagues are all announced here, and the side that I mentioned on
Wednesday from Amberfield School, Ipswich, are declared Champions for
their league. This is the third year running that they've achieved
this accolade; I hope that they get the recognition that they deserve
for this back home. (They've been writing their own blog on this week
- see http://robocupchina.blogspot.com/.)

Meanwhile, outside the remnants of Typhoon Kalmaegi has arrived, and
it's raining heavily (but warmly). We end up heading for a bar with
some German competitiors, before going back to the apartment. There,
somewhere, some of the competitors are obviously making a real party of
it nearby, as I drop off to sleep.