June 13-14, 2010 ---- After having a memorable time at the Terracotta Warriors and Horse Museum in Xi'an, we continued our journey to Suzhou, the "City of Gardens" or "Venice of Asia."
Day 7
We left Xi'an early in the morning and flew to Shanghai by Hainan Airlines. Once we go to Shanghai, there was a local tour guide with a private van and a driver who came to pick us up at the airport and drove us to Suzhou. It took about 2 hours to drive to Suzhou, and the tour guide just gave us introductory information about our itinerary and the city. We stayed at Jasmine Hotel, and it had a very nice location.
After checking in, we had a little time before dinner, so Nathan and I just went for a walk in the city by ourselves. We walked along the canal to a local market. We didn't really like the city as much as we hoped. The city was too industrialized, the sky was always hazy from smoke or whatever that didn't look natural, and the water in the canal was brownish or muddy.
At dinner, the tour guide took us to a restaurant and then we went to the Grand Canal.
The Grand Canal
After dinner, the tour guide took us to the Grand Canal. It is about 1,200 miles long, and it's the longest man-made waterway in the world. It is also over 2,000 years old, and it had been a major means of transportation for many dynasties in the past. Suzhou has been known as the "Venice of Asia" because of its ancient canal.
We walked around the canal a little and then took a boat to observe the people's life along the waterway. The buildings were preserved very well, and it was kind of nice to see the old city light up at night.
Day 8
Gardens
Suzhou is the "City of Gardens," so our itinerary had a lot of garden sightseeing. We started our day at the Garden of The Master of the Nets or Wangshi Yuan in Chinese. It was designed during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
Here we had a special arrangement to learn how to do Chinese calligraphy. The tour hired a teacher to meet us at the garden and teach us a few simple Chinese characters. We all got to try to write as much as we wanted. Nathan and I had already learned Chinese in Taiwan, but neither of us had done the Chinese calligraphy class, so it was kind of awesome. I drew a picture of flowers and wrote "我愛你 (I love you)" and gave it to my teacher as a sevenior from me. Then my teacher wrote a character and gave it to me, but I don't remember what it means . :-)
Later we went to about two more gardens, but I don't remember their names. Overall, the gardens in Suzhou are very beautiful, but if you have already seen one, you don't need to see another one because they all look pretty much the same.
Silk Workshop
Suzhou is also very well know for silk. The tour guide took us to a silk factory to learn how they get the tiny thread from the silkworms. Basically they feed the worms till they grow and make a cocoon around themselves. Then the worker will put the cocoon in boiling water and use the machine to spin the thread. They also showed us how the machine makes a piece of beautiful silk from the threads they got from the silkworms. We had a great experience there.
Pingjiang Road
Pingjiang Road is a historical street. It was the main route during the Song Dynasty. Because Suzhou is 42% covered by water, most residential areas are like water townships. It's pretty cool to walk around these neighborhoods and or sit down and relax by the water.
Kun Opera Museum
Kun Opera Museum is located on the historical Pingjiang Road. I first heard about this kind of Chinese opera when I took a Chinese class in Taiwan because my teacher was a former Kun opera singer. I have watched the Beijing opera, but I don't know if it sounds similar to Kun opera.
The Kun Opera Museum is a nice place to visit. The famous part of the museum is the stage for Kunqu performances in the late Qing Dynasty.
Our trip in Suzhou ended right here at the Kun Opera Museum. Next we took the private van to Shanghai to spend our last two days there.
