Suzhou(China)

February 2017

 

Our short tour of Suzhou started at the not-very-humble garden of the Humble Administrator’s Garden (Zhuo Zheng Yuan). Known for exceptional classical gardens, silk, and embroidery, one can’t claim to have been to Suzhou without visiting some of these gardens. We got to see the largest & one of the most beautiful one, we were assured. 

The bonsai tree collection at one end of the garden was quite impressive. If these were in any other city, there would’ve been a stand-alone attraction housing the collection.

Since this trip was a stop during a packaged tour, we did not have much control over what to see and how long we could stay. Some people took a boat tour around the canals, but we just walked through the alleys along the canals. Then we visited a silk factory, which was interesting enough even though there were heavy sales talks peppered in the program.

If we are to come back, we’d spend at least one or two nights and visit at least another garden just to compare and have some idea on the spectrum of the classical Chinese gardens.

for more information:  WikiTravel Link

[update: October 2019]

We did return to Suzhou in two and a half years again as a part of a packaged tour. This time they drove us in from Shanghai, spent the night, and had a tour the next morning.

The sun rising over the modern development. After all, more than 10 million people live in this city, and the old houses can’t handle that kind of crowd.

Embroidery is another specialty of Suzhou. They claim this place as a museum, but it is more of a showroom than an embroidery art museum. Still, the pieces on display were impressive. The one above is one example. The black cat and the yellow cat are on the same panel: you flip the panel to see the other side.

Klimt? Van Gogh? You name it, and they can recreate it one stitch at a time. It may take over a year, but the skilled artisans of Suzhou can do it.

We did get to visit another garden: the Master of Nets Garden. Much smaller than the Humble garden we saw last time, but it was equally beautiful.

Once again, some people got on the canal boats, and we just walked around the area.

There were lots of local people strolling in the area. Some fruit shops had exceptionally beautiful displays, but, they did not allow us to take pictures. (Luckily, the internet can show you some examples.)

There were some fancy houses along the canals. We had fun being part of “Old Suzhou” for a couple of hours.