Suzhou

Add to that the rainy weather that we had today. It started as a moderate rain, and the intensity increased as the day went on. Anyway, we left our hotel around 8 this morning and finally arrived in Suzhou around 10:30. Our first stop was the Humble Administrator's Garden. It was named for a former imperial subject who, after being released from his position with the emperor, came back to Suzhou and began this garden in 1509, during the Ming Dynasty. It is one of the largest classical gardens in China and is also an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We learned that a Chinese garden needs to have four elements: plants, water, rocks, and the architecture. This garden has all of these and is the largest in Suzhou. Despite the rainy weather, we enjoyed our visit to this garden. By the way, it was interesting to note that bicycle, electric bicycle, and also others enjoyed their status as performers, no matter the milieu of their site.

From there we headed to the Suzhou Silk Factory #1. Those of you who know me well know that in second grade we study the life cycle of the silkworm. Obviously I was interested in learning more about the silk culture in China. Although we didn't get to see the actual silkworm culture, it was still interesting to learn more about the silk production process. The following video is about 5 minutes long and shows what we saw in the silk factory.

After our tour we had the opportunity to shop. We did end up buying a silk quilt for our bed, which we will use in place of the down blanket we now have. It will be interesting to note the difference between the two. Since we are having ours shipped by boat, it will probably be a couple of months before we can say if it was a good decision.

We had lunch at the silk factory and then went to another garden in Suzhou, the Lingering Garden, which was also built during the Ming Dynasty. It is a smaller garden, but we were able to walk around it while staying covered by the corridors. Although smaller, it is still a beautiful garden, and another UNESCO World Heritage Site. At this garden there were musicians demonstrating classical Chinese instruments and music. Following is another video of the instruments.

Our last stop in Suzhou was Tiger Hill, the site of burials of emperors and a leaning pagoda, which is 900 years old. For more information visit http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/jiangsu/suzhou/tiger_hill.htm. I would have liked to have taken more photos but didn't because of the rain.

This is a link to the Shutterfly album containing today's pictures: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9Aas2TVk2Zstc&notag=1
It took us almost 3 hours to return to Shanghai, with most of the delay occuring in a bottleneck at the toll plaza heading back into the city, and then just dealing with the city traffic. With a population of 18+ million in Shanghai, and 6 million in Suzhou, it's evident that they need to reinforce the road infrastructure to match the population.

For those of you who've crossed the US border from Tijuana and thought that you'd waited too long, we invite to experience a return to Shanghai. It's shorter, although not by much.

Tomorrow we fly to Xi'an at 8 something in the moring. Time for bed here!!