8/6/06 ~ Suzhou

On the Rio: The Doors ~ People Are Strange.

There couldn't be a more appropriate song. I thought I would get used to the constant and blatent staring, but I find it harder and harder. Staring is not considered rude in this culture, but having grown up being told it is impolite to stare, I'm having a hard time with it.

Enough of my whining. I had a great day actually. I went with the other Yum American expat here to the city of Suzhou. The trip by car (her driver took us in an Audi A6L) is about 90 minutes from Shanghai. Suzhou is described as Yesterday’s “Venice of the East” (so dubbed by no other than Marco Polo).

It is known for its beautiful planted private gardens and silk industry. We went to what was listed on the map as a silk museum, but it turned out to be a private silk factory. It was interesting to see the silk worms at work, and the women stretching the silk. I would have liked to see the dying/coloring process.

We went to two gardens: Garden for Lingering and Garden of the Master of Nets. Both were quite reclusive spots, and for the first time I actually felt like I experienced something truly Chinese.

Garden for Lingering (Liuyuan) has an impressive collection of bonsai (penjing) and a wilderness area.

There is also an 18 foot (6.5 meter) Crown of Clouds Peak, a chunk of carved rock from nearby Taihu Lake.

Women dressed in full Ming Dynasty regalia played instruments and sang. [I actually was able to take 2 short – about a minute each – videos of this, and the singing/playing is beautiful.]

I took over 100 pictures today, so of course I can only post the highlights. I’ll bore all of you with more photos when I’m home!

Garden of the Master of Nets (Wangshiyuan) is tiny and charming, and tucked away down an alleyway. The arrangement of pavilions, halls, music rooms, and waterside perches promotes natural harmony.

We also went to the Northern Pagoda, where we were greeted by this rather large buddha.

The North Temple Pagoda is a brick and wooden Buddhist pagoda and has nine stories with eight sides each. With the height of 76 meters, it is the highest of the pagodas in Suzhou. It is famous for double eaves and flying corners. So far it has a history of more than 1,700 years. We were able to climb up 5 floors of wooden stairs in the internal corridors to have a panorama of the city as well as look at hills, waters, and rural scenery of Suzhou in the distance.

My travel partner didn’t seem too keen on trying a local restaurant, but it turned out fine and we finally found a local spot with an English menu. I was interested in finding the Yuanwailou Restaurant which, according to the website, serves “fragrance-sending hemp leaves”, but I don’t know her well enough to have insisted. (But probably next trip!)

Looking for a local restaurant we passed 4 KFC’s, 2 McDonalds, a Pizza Hut, a Starbucks and a Haagen Daas. We joked it was impossible to find a Chinese restaurant in China.

We settled on a Hunan Restaurant. Hunan province is in the south of China, and the region Chairman Mao was born and educated, and is known to be home to some of China’s spiciest foods. We ordered fried corn (not deep fried, more of tempura coating, very light, and it was spicy with ground red pepper, but a little on the salty side), and fried brown rice with pork and scallions. We also ordered a chicken and mushroom dish, but the waitress came back, and through the use of the dictionary, we discerned that it would be too spicy for my travel partner's taste buds, so we switched our order to chicken in a hot pot. Well, this chicken had excellent flavor, but I can’t guarantee what parts of the chicken are used. We refused to eat the chicken feet. I have been told, however, that China is now importing chicken feet from the US because of the high demand.

This day trip has definitely peaked my interest to travel more weekends outside of Shanghai. There are two places I really still need to visit in the city, so I'll plan that for next weekend. I think my next trip I'll take the overnight train to Beijing and at least see that and the Forbidden City. The Great Wall will take a longer trip.

There's so much to do and see!