Gardens, Gardens, more Gardens, and a lovely River Cruise
“Where’d he go?”
“I don’t know… I thought you had him. Don’t worry, he'll show up”
“There he is… what’s he doing coming out of that house?!?!?”
“Probably more pics”.
And so Ke Jia was getting a quick lesson on keeping track of Chucky as we approach our first destination, the Humble Administrator’s Garden.
But first… lest set the scene and lay down some facts.
The alarm went off early and we began the Delighted Dance of the Spacious and well lit Bathroom, checking e-mail and responding to comments on the latest NOWAT. This really is a lovely hotel and we can’t get over how well it’s run. After a hurried breakfast and we joined Ke Jia and Li for the drive to our first stop and along the way we got the full briefing on Suzhou
Built in 514BC, Suzhou is considered a Cultural, Historical and major tourist city with a total population of 6 million and 2 million just in the inner city. It is a growing industrial city with many Top Fortune 500 companies having factories in Suzhou. The Western district is the new high Tech community and Top computer peripheral maker…your computer mouse was probably made in Suzhou.
There are 8 districts and 5 county level cities that are very wealthy… in fact of the top 10 county level cities in country, 4 are in Suzhou . it has very mild temperatures year round and is on a plain surrounded by canals and lakes and Marco Polo called it the Venice of the Orient.
Suzhou is famous for the “Three Whites”: Silver fish, tiny white fish and white shrimp….also hairy crabs from Yang Cheng lake
Famous for the “Old Way” to make dinner it is known as the land of fish and rice. It is said that the harvest of Just Hangzhou and Suzhou could feed the whole country.
Suzhou is also known as the capital of garden building .with over 2000 gardens in ancient times with 77 left, most of the others destroyed by either time or the Red Guard during the Cultural revolution.
Now we will see the Humble Administrators Garden, the largest private garden built during
the Ming dynasty from 1513-1528 by Wang Xi'an Chen and is over 5 sq hectares, his son later lost the garden to pay gambling debts. The garden is 2/3 water and is built around a well that is 200 years older than the garden.
It is the only garden to hold a lotus festival. Of the 400 varieties of plants in China, 150 are in the garden. From one spot in the garden Called ”Burrowing View” you can see the Tiger Hill pagoda 1km away, framed by an idyllic setting of lush greenery and harmonious rock formations floating on a tranquil pond. [hence Borrowing view] This garden is so spectacular and calming it is practically indescribable. You know Chucky got some great shots here.Next stop was the “Master of Nets” garden built in 1180AD by Shi Zheng zhi, a retired vice minister in the Southern Song Dynasty during the Qin’s long reign another outstanding example of harmony and balance in garden design. It got its name from the area near the Grand Canal where there were many fishing spots.
As we took the long walk back to the car down very narrow lanes, also called "Gardens of the Common Man", Ke Kia suggested we take a cruise down the Grand Canal to Shan Tang Street actually a series of canals that are actual streets in this Venice like city and was the only street or canal reproduced on the grounds of the Summer palace in Beijing. The poor could not afford to live within the city walls and were forced to live on the canals. Today the property values of these homes have skyrocketed and the poor underprivileged people of are now sitting on a gold mine.
We headed to lunch at The Choyers Restaurant operated for the benefit of brining tours to the Choyers silk factory… the Number one silk Factory [they're all #1] and boy what a disaster of a meal… we should have had buffet. We were served Deep Fried Head on shrimp [2nd time in two days] and though they were bigger than last night… still a mess to eat. The beef dish was cold and bland and we got the same white fish fingers we had in Hangzhou that had too many very tiny bones smothered in a ketchup type sauce accompanied by fresh green beans, the only good thing about the meal. Again with the watery egg drop/tomato soup and steamed rice. Beer good… but a hassle over the price of the third glass. This got 1 * and that was generous. Guest we shouldn’t have expected very much from a restaurant operated by a silk factory for the sole purpose of the tchotchke hustle.
After lunch we toured the silk factory and saw the actual processing of the silk from the worm spinning the cocoon to the finished product. It takes 2000 spring cocoons to make a simple silk T-shirt, 500 for just one tie, and 85 double coccons [not good for anything else] to make just one layer of a quilt that is stretched by 4 workers all at once, who train for 4 years to learn to stretch the silk.
Next stop was a cruise on the Grand Canal where prior to boarding the boat Chucky found a bride [those that know him, know that in his previous Catering life, he loved brides and doing weddings and he always manages to find a bride on our trips.] Pics all around and off to the cruise.First some Canal facts:
The first section of the Grand Canal in Suzhou was built in 495BC and eventually forms a natural city moat around Suzhou that was once 2500KM long and now only 1800. it averages 6 meters deep with the smaller canals 3-4 feet and there are over 400 bridges around Suzhou. The Grand Canal stretches from Beijing to Hangzhou and connects the 5 major rivers in China that run East and West. You can literally travel all over China by Boat as many of the emperors once did. The symbol of the city is a circle with a grid in the center representing the Grand Canal surrounding the smaller canals running north to south… east to west.
As we cruise the canal and enter the smaller canals to Shan Tang street, we can see the ancient way of living blended with the new and a whole slide show may spring from this one trek. The canals are working canals as well as “streets” with the same family living on both sides in some places.
We find ourselves arriving at Tiger Hill Pagoda, burial place of He
Lui the 1st king of Suzhou. The Pagoda is so named because a the King saw white tiger crouching on the hill and it was said to be the soul of the kings swords. [He loved his Swords] It is a most scenic spot in Suzhou where the king tried swords on a stone there “Sword Testing Stone” [one really big mutha stone] split down the middle, so it had to be one "Big Mutha Sword". The king also loved stones and many carved ones abound here.
His tomb was covered by a sword shaped pond and when the pond was drained, they found a tunnel and 4 stones indicating the tomb but could not excavate it as it was under the pagoda which is already leaning [just like the one in Pisa, Italy] due to the soft saturated soil.The site of today’s Suzhou industrial area was also the site where the king first commissioned artisans to cast his favorite sword and is considered the first industrial complex in Suzhou.
After leaving Tiger Hill we tried to find a little bar near Ke Jia’s house so we could relax and just chat, and chucky could take more notes and pics but they were closed and we settled for a beer in the lounge of the Gentleman’s Hotel where we were to have dinner. The down time was good, just to relax as we have been non stop most of the time.
The dinner was a worse disaster than lunch… they tried to serve the same Head on “Prawns” and when I asked for a change, they substituted the same lousy bony white fish in the same ketchup, the same terrible watered down soup, greasy fried pork and even greaser vegetables… Beer good…but this meal and service gets MINUS 2 ** and a complaint letter to the agency. Ke Jia and Li also complained about their meal.
We headed back to the hotel for some relaxation in that GREAT BED and a little NOWAT writing and a crash for an early day tomorrow in Tongli… water town.
再见朋友
Zài Jiàn Péng-You
Chuck and the now thoroughly exhausted from all the steps and walking
Dragon Lady.
