Food Fight!

It's a double dose of "what in the world are those!?" Fame and glory to the first person to get them both right....




Lonely Planet FAIL.

 

 Finally, here are pictures from our trip to Suzhou! We're starting to talk about another trip next weekend, so I thought I better get these up before I fall further behind! It was one of those weekends, where in spite of best efforts to figure out what we wanted to see and do, nothing was meant to be, and yet it was still a great weekend. Our Chinese teacher was right, we did go too early, so the gardens were only beginning to bloom. And the "Venice of China" moniker is a real stretch of the imagination. Yes, there are stagnant canals everywhere (that painters just dump their leftover paint into), but no one uses them except the garbage boats (to pick out the trash the locals throw right in them) and the occasional tourist boat. Cars and scooters honk incessantly and careen in every direction, making me wonder if the person who dubbed it 'Venice' had in fact, ever been to Venice. And our guide book was awful...wrong addresses, incorrect hours for the museum, bad restaurant recommendations, and map scales completely out of whack. When we got back home, I google mapped everywhere we walked, and in a supposedly 2 square mile town, we walked 21.35 miles! Our hotel was a great surprise--far nicer than we'd realized! We'd gladly go back and just spend a week there (now that we know the addresses and hours of places we wanted visit!)! Our hotel was next to the only remaining section of the old wall that used to surround Suzhou, and our hotel was built to look just like it....  In the end we had a great long weekend just wandering and finding the hidden charm on our own. We took way too many photos (I am my father's daughter)--here's my attempt to narrow it down a bit.



Pan Gate, 1355...only remaining section of Suzhou's city walls.





Our hotel....



View from our room--Auspicious Light Pagoda



That's me up there!



View from the top

Cool escape from the heat





Crazy flowering tree



Beautiful florist shop

Garden of the Master of the Nets

I loved these doors and windows all over the garden....I spare you by only posting two...





Tourists on the left, garbagemen on the right...



Adorable grandpas shootin' the breeze....They actually seemed tickled that I took their picture



Looked like an abandoned building, but someone has made it home....

North Temple Pagoda (5th cent, rebuilt 17th cent) tallest pagoda south
of the Yangtze River.  Was originally someone's home!

This would be me too, if this was my job! We've jumped in one of these just once when we couldn't find a cab, and I just felt awful. It was 90 degrees but the guy was dressed for winter, and had to drag us uphill to the bus station. I understand that this is a normal job here, but I wanted to help push the whole time.

Just a small load....

Bri's favorite find of the weekend.



Canal by night...



Happy Weekend!

So, we're off to Venice in the morning! Well, the "Venice of China" that is. We're hoofing it to the canal town of Suzhou for a three day weekend thanks to the Chinese Holiday Grave Sweeping Days that fell on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Basically, it's similar to Memorial Day. We aren't sure if this is holiday related, but it seemed to coincide with people singing at the top of their lungs from their balconies randomly throughout the holiday. The daily barrage of fireworks was also ramped up a fair bit all week. Our Chinese teacher told us yesterday that we're going to Suzhou too early in the year--that it's far better in May or June--just our luck. But she did give us tips on restaurants and sites to see, none of which are in our guide books, so we're hoping to get a less touristy version of the town.

The center of Suzhou's old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, dating back some 2500 years. By the 14th century it was China's leading silk producting city, attracting other wealthy artisans, scholars, actors and painters, who constructed beautiful retreats and gardens for private contemplation. Nearly 70 of its 12th-15th  century gardens still exist--they have fantastic names like "Garden of the Master of the Nets" and the "Humble Administrator's Garden" and "Garden to Linger In." There's also a brand new museum (designed by I.M. Pei) in town. Everything from silk to yarn to furniture to art is on the wish list as we explore this weekend! Here's a few pictures I grabbed online. Hopefully we get some good shots of our own!


Garden of the Master of the Nets




Suzhou, as I've just learned from a friend back home (thanks Luci!) is the sister city of Portland! Certainly makes the world seem smaller and more connected. I didn't know any of this, but turns out everything in Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland was constructed by artisans back in Suzhou. Even 500 tons of rock were sent to Portland. Then sixty-five men (along with two cooks!) came over to construct it all.



Garden to Linger In