Touring China: Suzhou

*Warning: Photos Intensive*

13-21 May 2009

The trip to China was actually a visit to the Jiangnan region, leading us to visit Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuzhen, Nanjing and Wuxi. Given that we went with a tour group, our itinerary was scheduled in a way that every time we head off to a new destination, it would be after lunch, thus allowing us to only be in a region for one day – from afternoon onwards to the next noon time just after lunch. As such, my entries would be written as according to the way we travel, with the exception of Shanghai as we were there on the first 1.5 days, and the last 2.5 days.

First up, Suzhou.

The place where Singapore invested heavily in the past -Suzhou Industrial Park. I was actually surprised to see Suzhou really clean and nice. It’s pretty much like Singapore to me =)

While there, we also got to to view the Golden Chicken lake, as well as catch a glimpse of Suzhou’s Cultural Centre (left pic), also known as ‘Suzhou’s Bird Nest’ (I guess my picture here does not do justice to it).

But soon, it was on to Ouyuan Garden, a private garden that was built by high officials during the Qing Dynasty to retreat to.

It had greens, it had a bridge, it had ‘mountains’, and it had villas. It was just such a peaceful lovely place! And it was really interesting as they even had fake mountains for their daughters to ‘play’ with as in the past, females were not allowed out of the house.

Anyway, the tour guide also mentioned that this scene was the one they took for the poster advertisment of Huanzhu GeGe. So imagine us trying to pretend to be a princess as well by posing with this lovely architecture =)

And yup, with my sister and I being the cam-whores that we are, we did not give this beautiful place a miss =D After that, we made our way to Hanshan Temple, where is it also called Fengqiao temple. (Apparently, the temples in China has very expensive entrance fees! Sometimes even more expensive than musuem entry fees).

Our next stop was the Historical Street, which had 1500 years of history. It was kind of like a city by the river. But according to the tour guide, it was influenced by modernism quite drastically, as pubs and restaurants have taken over most of the houses.

Our last stop was Guanqian Street, as we were treated with the local shopping.

But soon, it was time to retire for the day, as we head off to Tourism Hotel. (The room was quite spacious and nice.)

The next morning, we were brought to a silk factory. Imagine my jitters as most would know that I’m not a big fan of creepy crawlies… =(  But apparently, Suzhou is well known for its silk products, as we were introduced to the place, as well as the silk-making process. Thankfully, I did not see any worms! (And even if there were, I made sure I looked in the opposite direction of it. Take that sis, whosoever constantly was disturbing me with my fear! )

As usual, the tour guide was selling the products, explaining to us that silk bed protectors and comforters were the best to have as they had helped Qinglong Emperor greatly in the past with his rhumetism, especially when Suzhou was a pretty wet place. Unfortunately, I do not think my family was that into silk sheets thought I must admit they do feel really soft and comfy. Maybe next time for my own home?? =D

Lastly, we were brought to a scenic place in Suzhou, which I believe is the Pan Men San Jing. A place with lovely bridges and beautiful gardens, before we are off to Wuzhen!