Suzhou- The Canals

      Even back in America I had heard of the mediocrity of Chinese tour groups, or 旅游团. Our Chinese teacher warned us that most tour groups waste a lot of time on shopping, but when a tour group advertiser approached us outside of the museum, we decided to take it just to see if it really was as bad as people say. Well, it was really that bad, or you could even say it was worse. The appeal was that it was a boat tour that would take us around the different waterways in Suzhou, showing off some of the famous gardens. They didn't mention the little fact that the windows were too short and too dirty to see anything good or take any good pictures.  Afterward they took us on a boat to a "silk museum," which was actually just a couple of rooms showing about the production of silk, and then a huge shopping area. Yes, the truth is, it is really better not to use a tour group. After that sidetrack, we escaped from the tour group, and headed to eat some food. We tried it, and we learned, never ever EVER take a tour group...if you don't have to.

      Disappointed by the results of taking a tour group, we continued on to walk the streets of Suzhou. Though it was cold and rainy, it was quite enjoyable. We found one of those tourist streets that you can find in probably most cities in China. You know, the ones where they sell a lot of cheap knick-knacks and street food, that are so full of people you have to push your way through them? I really enjoyed walking around this bustling street and seeing all of the interesting things they had to sell.

I asked Hui why Chinese people like to make jade cabbages, but I'm not sure he even knew why, so he just said "you don't think it looks beautiful?" He thought it was funny that I asked that, so he made me take a picture with all the jade cabbages.

      In the afternoon we went to this nice little Japanese style cafe. In many popular tourist cities in China, you can see little shops or cafes that sell postcards, and if you write it in the shop, they will send it for you. I decided to buy a few postcards for my family and friends.

      The last thing we did on our Suzhou trip was take a boat down the canal. This was loads better than the stupid tour group boat we took, and we really got a great look at some places around this part of the city. While I was looking at it, I was thinking of how beautiful this city is, but how it is different from Hangzhou. I thought of it as being kind of dirty, but not in a bad way. It was dirty in a way that just seemed lived in, that would possibly lose its beauty if it was cleaned. The guide for the tour group said that the best time to see the city was in the rain, and I feel like he was right.

 

On the way back to Hangzhou, we were not able to get a bullet train ticket, which meant we had a five hour train ride back. We were in different beds on the train, so we decided to go to the food car and sit for a while. Unfortunately, my legs were getting restless, so we went back to the bed car. We arrived back in Hangzhou at 2am. It was a really fun time!

Final thought: I had heard of these fruit before from an article on facebook, and I saw them for the first time in Suzhou. We decided to buy them to see what they were like. If you were wondering, they were grown like that, by putting a mold around the fruit while it is growing. I call them baby fruit, but I have seen some in the supermarket that are shaped like an old man with a big long beard too. In my opinion, they taste kind of like cucumbers.

Suzhou- The Suzhou Museum

      Going to Suzhou was the first trip as a couple for me and Hui. I have heard in the past that traveling can either make or break your relationship, and I have to say, Hui and I travel immensely well together. Thought our trips are always a huge adventure with ups and downs and an interesting twist here or there, we always make them an adventure. Having so few opportunities to travel because of the few breaks we get, these days if there is a three or four day weekend, you can bet Hui and I will not be in Hangzhou or Haining. We really love traveling together!
      I can't remember exactly which holiday it was when we went to Suzhou (maybe qingming festival, the date on the pictures are close to that time), but it was quite busy, and that might have been my first exposure to the Chinese phenomenon known as 'people mountain people sea', aka 人山人海. It basically has the meaning of sooooooooooooooooooooooo many people! It was really rainy and a tiny bit cold, and we got pretty wet, but it was still a great adventure. I was always calling it that, and Hui would say "c'mon, it's just travel, not an adventure," but by the end he agreed with me.
      Going to Suzhou was my first time to ride a bullet train. It was really nice, similar to the service you would get when you ride an airplane, but you don't have to buckle up. The thing I remember the most is that every single seat had a picture of David Beckham on it twice. I decided that the Chinese must really love him.

 

      Our Suzhou adventure began the next morning when we traveled to the Suzhou Museum. One of our experience at the Suzhou Museum reminded me of the power of money in China. It was a free museum, but the line to get inside looked miles long. We met a man on the street nearby who we paid I think about 30 kuai and a man took us through the exit, and we entered without waiting in line. The first area we went to didn't look much like a museum, but more like a historical landmark. It included many rooms of historical artifacts and documents from the Taiping Kingdom. I haven't studied much about the taipings yet, but I know the taiping rebellion happened around the end of the dynastic period. (By the way, sorry if you don't like so many pictures, but I decided to show my pictures to people on a nice blog instead of putting bulk pictures in facebook albums where nobody will ever see them.)

Because my family really loves to visit museums and historical sites, I always try to take a picture whenever I see something in English, so that they can understand and learn about the kind of things I am seeing when I visit a new place.

One of the famous cultural things in Suzhou is kunqu opera. There were many different old costumes and a whole stage, which was mentioned to be one of the most well preserved kunqu opera stages.

      After walking around for a while, we finally found our way into the main part of the museum. I was quite impressed by the architecture of the place. Its appearance was modern and distinct, but uniquely Chinese.

Hui wanted to point out in this particular picture that I am the one with the unbrella, meaning that he sacrificed being warm and dry to take this picture. He is such a great guy!

 



 Inside we saw many different interesting Chinese artifacts. They had the usual objects, like congs, jade bis, and bronze dings, but they also had some things that I never had a chance to see in America.

This particular object I photographed, because I have seen it used before in the Chinese drama, 甄嬛传. It was often sitting on the lap of the empress, and I remember that it had some sort of health benefit, but I have since forgotten exactly what that health benefit was.