It was a hot summer day. My mum     1     (hold) a small note and waving at every taxi that passed along the Suzhou road. We had come here by train     2     Shanghai to visit the classical gardens. But now we had already been standing by this road for over     3     hour. We needed to go to the station to catch     4     (we) train to Shanghai and had asked a local shopkeeper to write down the name of the station for the driver to understand. But every driver who stopped to examine the note drove off without     5     (say) a word. There we were, helpless and     6     (lose) in China.

Luckily, a young lady walked over and found out that the paper only said “xièxiè” —Chinese for “Thank you”. No wonder no one would take us. We     7     (sudden) realized that my father had repeatedly asked the shopkeeper to “write this down, please. Thank you! Thank you!” Apparently, he had assumed us funny foreigners     8     wanted to know the word for “thanks” in Chinese. That explained the     9     (puzzle) expression on the taxi drivers’     10     (face) as they just read “thank you” on the note. Thanks to the help of the passer-by, we were eventually able to catch the train.

4 . It’s a new year with 12 whole months of new travel possibilities—but where are the best places to go? Mirror Travel Editors choose their 4 hotspots.

Sri Lanka

Temples, birds, beaches and culture...and some of the world’s best tea!

The Indian Ocean Island is the size of Ireland but blessed with an outstanding range of things to see and do including an impressive eight UNESCO world heritage sites (世界遗产地) and national parks.

OUR TIP: See the masses of elephants in Uda Walawe national park.

Finland

Rated as one top three countries to visit by Lonely Planet as well as one of National Geographic Traveler’s 21 Best of the World destinations for 2017, there’s even more cause for celebration as next year marks the 100^th anniversary of Finland’s independence.

OUR TIP: With over three million saunas (桑拿) in the country, you could leave Finland in a sweat!

North Wales

The region has heavily financed adventure activities. Add to that white water rafting and surf at the world’s first inland surfing zone which is the size of six football pitches (足球场)—Surf Snowdonia and the splendid view of Mount Snowdon itself.

OUR TIP: The upgraded Bounce Below at ZipWorld looks ridiculously good fun, which is the size of a church.

Canada

Big and beautiful, it’s got just about everything: snow-capped mountains, vast forests rich in wildlife (who doesn’t like bears?!), huge lakes, two ocean coastlines and cities that offer history, culture, fine food and all your 21st century needs.

OUR TIP: Head to Cape Spear in Newfoundland and Labrador. It’s North America’s most easterly point and besides the sunrises and great views you could also see whales.

5 . A national park is created for the purpose of conservation. Yellowstone National Park in the US was the first national park in the world. Here are some other national parks in the world.

Northeast Greenland National Park, Denmark

The national park is the largest one in the world. It covers an area of 927，000 km²，It is also the most northern national park in the world.

Around 5,000 to 15,000 musk oxen (麝香牛) as well as polar bears live in the park. Some of the birds also live there.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia

The park is the second largest national park in the world. It protects a large part of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef from being damaged in any way.

All commercial ships must stay on specific shipping routes that avoid the most sensitive areas of the park. The Great Barrier Reef has the world's largest number of corals and other sea life.

Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, Mozambique

This national park covers an area of 99,800 km².It joins some of the famous wildlife areas in southern Africa into a huge conservation area.

In 2006, the Giriyondo tourist access between the Limpopo and Kruger national parks was opened. There were 5,000 animals moving from Kruger to Limpopo National Park, including over 1,000 elephants.

Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada

The park was created in 1922 to protect the wood bison (森林野牛) whose population had dropped from 40 million in 1830 to less than 1.000 by 1900.

The park consists of 44,807 square kilometers of northern plains. It is also the world's only natural living place of the cranes (鹤).

8 . For six hours we shot through the landscape of the Karoo desert in South Africa. Just rocks and sand and baking sun. Knowing our journey was ending, Daniel and I just wanted to remember all we had seen and done. He used a camera. I used words. I had already finished three notebooks and was into the fourth, a beautiful leather notebook I’d bought in a market in Mozambique.

Southern Africa was full of stories. And visions. We were almost drunk on sensations. The roaring of the water at Victoria Falls, the impossible silence of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. And then the other things: dogs in the streets, whole families in Soweto living in one room, a kilometre from clean water.

As we drove towards the setting sun, a quietness fell over us. The road was empty—we hadn’t seen another car for hours. And as I drove, something caught my eye, something moving next to me. I glanced in the mirror of the car; I glanced sideways to the right, and that was when I saw them. Next to us, by the side of the road, thirty, forty wild horses were racing the car, a cloud of dust rising behind them—brown, muscular horses almost close enough to touch them, to smell their hot breath. I didn’t know how long they had been there next to us.     

I shouted to Dan: “Look!”, but he was in a deep sleep, his camera lying useless by his feet. They raced the car for a few seconds, then disappeared far behind us, a memory of heroic forms in the red landscape. When Daniel woke up an hour later I told him what had happened.

“Wild horses?” he said. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I tried. But they were gone after a few seconds.”

“Are you sure you didn’t dream it?”

“You were the one who was sleeping!”

“Typical,” he said. “The best photos are the ones we never take.”

We checked into a dusty hotel and slept the sleep of the dead.