Trip to Suzhou Part II, Day 3, February 7, 2008

Apparently another attraction at tiger hill was Steve, who had a gaggle of giggling girls wanting to take their picture with him. All of China is decorated with New Year decorations. Most of the locals refer to it as the spring festival which will end on February 21 with Lantern Day (thus the lantern decorations that show up everywhere. This is the year of the rat so rats abound, but no live ones that we have seen.

After leaving Tiger Hill we headed to the Humble Administrator’s Garden. This was another of those incredible Chinese gardens with those rockeries and zig-zag bridges. This one was established in the 16th century by a retired magistrate. We love the name of the various buildings within the garden, not to mention the name of the garden. The Hall of Distant Fragrances, the Hall of Listening to the Rain. If they where not so many folks visiting, you could really get some meditation and contemplation done here. After leaving this garden we headed to lunch. Not sure if we have talked about the lunches we are presented with. We have not found it necessary to eat dinner yet. We usually go to a hotel or large restaurant with many dining rooms. There is a large turntable (lazy Susan on steroids) that you may have seen at some Chinese restaurants back in the states. There is usually soup, a pork dish, a chicken dish, a beef dish, a vegetable dish, rice, and then we finish with fruit. We are sure this is not your average Chinese lunch. Gladney obviously instructs the travel agency over here very specifically on how to take care of us. Our driver and guide are unfortunately usually seated at another table or dining area with no doubt a more abbreviated lunch which we find very awkward. Today’s lunch was no exception and very good.

After lunch we headed to the Suzhou No. 1 silk mill which was built in 1926. The mill includes a demonstration on how the silk is spun from the cocoons as well as information on the life span of the silk worms. Very interesting stuff. The Suzhou silk worms only dine on mulberry leaves. The cocoons are boiled and then the process begins on trying to find where the thread begins (or ends). 10 or 11 cocoons are spun together to make one thread. If you end up with a double cocoon (cocoons with two larvae), those are separated out and used to make the stuffing for quilts. The cocoons are just pulled and expanded to make a about a foot square piece. These are then layered on top of each other to some point until they make a thicker and larger square. This square is then taken and stretched out to a twin, full, queen, or king size layer. Then a hundred, or several hundred (depending upon the weight desired) of these layers are what makes a single quilt stuffing. After finishing the demonstration we got the sales pitch. We were led into a store that sold the quilts, quilt covers and silk sheets, clothes for every size and gender, ties, tapestries etc. Ann was giving the quilts serious consideration, but given our luggage weight limitations she resisted. David sighed in relief. But then we had to get past the children’s clothes. This was a close call as well but much to the disappointment of the Suzhou No. 1 Silk Mill sales force we escaped without a purchase.

From the silk factory we headed to the Grand Canal which runs between Beijing and Hangzhou south of Suzhou, and is roughly 1,112 miles long. The canal was begun in 486 BC and remained under construction over the next 1,000 years. The canal also includes the first recorded use of double locks in 984 AD. Apparently the construction of the canal continued in earnest in the 7th Century with the inscription of over 5 million males by the Sui Wendi emperor. The canal provided a link for the silk produced in Suzhou to get to Beijing. You can see one of the old city wall’s of Suzhou along the canal.

After viewing the Canal we headed back to Shanghai and were once again amazed again by the non-stop development linking these huge cities.