China 2009: Suzhou and ZhouZhuang Water Village - the Venice of China

About 1.5 hours west of Shanghai, Suzhou is known as the "Venice of China" with its canals and stone bridges.  Like in Venice, you can take a riverboat ride on the canals.  Our boat was steered by an extremely strong little old lady who serenaded us by singing Chinese opera.  Unfortunately, to me, Chinese opera sounds a bit like a cat wailing after you've stepped on his tail–not quite the same romantic atmosphere as hearing "O Sole Mio" from a Venetian gondolier.

Suzhou is also known for its classical gardens which feature pavilions and pagodas set on ponds, surrounded by large rocks, old trees and penjing (miniature potted landscapes).  We visited the utilitarian and ironically named "Humble Administrator's Garden", which is the largest garden in Suzhou and much more beautiful than the sound of its name.  Humble is not what came to mind when we saw it.

The Hanshan Temple (meaning Cold Mountain) is a Buddhist monastery that dates back to 502AD and is currently named after legendary monk and poet Hanshan from the Tang dynasty in 627AD.  It is known for the poem "A Night Mooring by Maple Bridge" written by another Tang dynasty poet Zhang Ji, which describes a melancholy traveler who hears the bells tolling at the temple.  The big bell on display today is a replica.   Prominent in the temple is the 5-storey Puming Pagoda, erected in 1995, which hosts some giant Buddha sculptures on the top floor.

In front of the Grand Prayer Hall, people hung red "prayer" ribbons and lit incense and candles.  Everywhere we went in China, we saw sculptures of lions, often in pairs.  We were told that the lion who had a globe under its paw was male, while the one with the baby or no globe was female.

Although the temple was a pretty serious place of worship for the most part, I was attracted to the series of whimsical "baby monk" sculptures that were scattered throughout.  I particularly liked the Kung-fu monk wearing shades and the one that seemed to be eating an ice cream cone– even if  these more modern sculptures did look a little out of place in such an old temple!

The octagonal, seven-storeyed Yunyansi Pagoda at the top of Tiger Hill is China's version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Built in 959A, it is noticeably and precariously leaning due to being built half on rock and half on soil.  Since 2010, access to the top of the tower is no longer open to the public for obvious safety reasons.  It is quite the trek up the hill to get to the base of the pagoda, so those with more money than energy can be carried up on a "bridal sedan chair".

Tiger Hill is supposed to look like a crouching tiger from afar.  It is a popular tourist attraction with pretty floral gardens, cherry blossom-filled trees,  rocks and ponds.  Chinese poetry and calligraphy are carved into the rocks.  A "Sword Testing Stone" is said to be used by King He Lu (circa 500BC) to test items from his rare sword collection.  Up on a ledge, traditional Chinese dances were being performed.

We visited a silk factory to learn how silk is made.  We watched the process of selecting the viable silk worm cocoons, extracting the threads, weaving them into silk fabric and then stretching the silk into larger pieces.  A group of girls were assigned to demonstrate this latter task.  But as soon as we walked away, they were able to relax.  I turned back to spot them napping and surfing on their cell phones.  We were also shown how to tell real silk from fake silk when the guide set fire to a piece of fabric and explained that fake silk emitted a bad smell with black smoke, which real silk did not.  While interesting, this is obviously not a practical method that we could use in the stores, since shop owners would take umbrage to our setting fire to their merchandise!  But it does highlight the concern about fakes in China.

Of course, the tour ended with a with a visit to a connecting silk shop where we could buy all sorts of silk products including fabrics, scarfs, clothing, linens, pillows and even a miniature emperor's hat.

The neighbouring suburb of ZhouZhang is another water village with shops and restaurants spanning both sides of the canal.  At night, they were lit up with red lanterns.  Unfortunately the area was so touristy that we had to pay an admission fee just to go see it.  The setting was so serene that we were startled to hear the sounds of an extremely loud, angry argument coming out of one of the restaurants.

Inland from the canals were more tourist areas with shops, restaurants and galleries.  Prominently featured were the the places selling the famous "Wansan Pork Shank" which is made by slowly stewing the meat, herbs and spices in large pots for over a day.  It is said to have been served by the richest family named Wansan during the Ming dynasty, and is still the most popular and expensive delicacy, served to the most valued guests at feasts and banquets.

We attended an elaborate water dance show that involved an enormous cast of musicians, dancers, acrobats and even livestock in dances depicting life in the water town, including fishing, farming, harvests and celebrations.   It was amusing to see the "dancers" with poop-scoops following behind the cattle. The stage was the other side of the canal from the audience and dancers on boats traversed the water.  It was surprising to see English subtitles stream across the bottom of the stage.