Day Two: Guided Tours of Suzhou

Our local guide, Sonia—Chinese name is Yang Yang which we prefer—and our driver Mr. Dong pick us up at Suzhou New City Garden Hotel. Right on time, I might add. Lili, the trainee guide, got caught in traffic caused by an accident and caught up with us.

First stop is Lingering Garden. Here is a link to some photos and a description, but use your BACK button if you look now or you will lose the blog.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/picture/jiangsu/suzhou/garden_lingering_in/

We have taken photos, but won’t ask Beth to upload them for us at this time. We have not been able to access Blogger.com from China. It is a bit of a mystery as Wordpress.com, another popular blogging site, is easily accessible. Rather than driving Beth crazy with uploading for us, I will set up a Wordpress site if Blogger.com stays blocked in Shanghai.

The sites were quite beautiful in Lingering Garden. Many different type windows through which were viewed sculptures and plantings designed to look like paintings. Old style architecture and furniture. Many rooms with Ming style furniture—beautiful. Our guide explained where the females would be hidden so that they could view guests, but not be seen.

A huge area had Chinese versions of bonsai which our guide said is much larger and is designed in four different styles. We happened upon a Chinese opera that was just beginning. It seems that audiences have become quieter and more attentive. A darling little girl kept going up to the stage’s edge and was imitating one of the performers. That would have been perfectly acceptable when we lived here. But one of the musicians even got up, went over to the mother and told her to have her child sit down.

Most of the tourists were Chinese including many children as it was Saturday. I often say, “Ni Hao” to small children and they say “hello” in return. The parents and grandparents laugh and encourage them, proud that they “know English.” And I have found that a smile is universal. Chinese have no compunctions about staring, often with jaws dropping as they check us out head to toe. But a smile and “Ni Hao” seems to break the trance and elicits a smile.

We were then taken to a silk factory. We’ve been before but this one was more of a tourist attraction followed by LOTS of opportunities to buy silk duvets, duvet covers, and clothing. This was all fine except lunch. We were taken to the “Western” section of the tourist restaurant and our guides went to the Chinese area. Had we known in time, we would have insisted on going to Chinese restaurant. We would much prefer to eat good Chinese food than their version of Western food.

After lunch our driver dropped Yang Yang and us off on a street through a reclamation area. The homes are the old style white walls with black tile roofs with lots of canals and bridges. There is little to do there as yet other than dodge getting hit by bicycles and motorbikes that whiz through. Hard to look around while playing a motorized version of dodge ball.

And the walk was LONG!!! Followed by several city blocks of stores before getting to the parking area for the van. Supposedly, parking was “forbidden” in the reclamation area. We suspect it was more a case of you might buy something during the walk. Thank goodness Archie and I have both been walking at home in preparation for this trip. But we really have not built up to the distance covered when you add Lingering Gardens to the reclamation area. I estimate about six or seven miles altogether. So we headed from there to the hotel for naptime. The guides picked us up about 6:15 pm to drive us to a Chinese restaurant for a typical Suzhou dinner. We were the only Westerners. The manager was so happy to have us that he did not allow us to pay for the Qingdao beer we ordered.