Suzhou (苏州) - Suzhou Museum (苏州博物馆) and Tongli Town (同里)

I am falling behind in updating this blog.  The main reason is the slowness of the internet in most of the hotels that I am staying.  The hotels are big so when most of the guests are logging onto the internet, the traffic crawls.  I try to update as soon as I can while the memories are still fresh.  Going to many places in one day and then going to multiple cities on one trip can get your mind all confused.  I am now in Lhasa, Tibet.

The Suzhou Museum is a museum of ancient Chinese art, paintings, calligraphy and handmade art.  It was founded in 1960.  In 2006 it was moved to a new location.  The new building is designed by renowned Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei and completed in October 2006.  It is one of the most visited museums in the world.  Although it is not a very big museum like the Louvre or Metropolitan Museum in New York, its architecture and landscape is what make this museum famous.  For a deeper dive into the design concept behind this museum, click on this link to read more about it:  

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/suzhou-museum-an-i-m-pei-masterwork-suzhou-museum-%E8%8B%8F%E5%B7%9E%E5%8D%9A%E7%89%A9%E9%A6%86/hgXxr9NyQc6tKA?hl=en

More about Suzhou Museum:

https://pei-architects.com/projects/suzhou-museum/

Entrance to the Museum

Tribute to I M Pei

Architectural Landscape

Below are some of the exhibits:

Tongli was not on my itinerary but because I have an extra free day I decided to engage my guide Bruce to show me more of Suzhou.  He decided to take me outside of the city, where it is crowded with tourists, to a "water town" about an hour away.  Why is it a water-town?  Perhaps it is because it is criss-crossed by canals.  Tongli is called the Venice of the East and is probably what is shown on marketing literatures about Suzhou.

I was delighted to come to Tongli because in my mind, that's what I picture Suzhou to be.  Unfortunately, Suzhou is also inundated with tourists, although there are some parts in Tongli where it is not overcrowded.  It is best that I show the town in pictures and videos below.

A typical mealtime

A traditional teahouse

Young lady learning the Pipa

A Canal scene

Shop selling goodies

Pork Knuckles are popular here

An old traditional house

Busy scene at the canal bridge

Shopping for beans

Dressed up for photography

Dressed up for photography

Above:  our gondolier singing her favorite song

Many tourists were strolling along the canals.  Some were dressed up for photography.  It seems like a popular thing for young ladies in China to do.  Go to a business, rent beautiful dresses, made up and take photographs.  They were all over town.

Suzhou (苏州) - Lingering Garden (留园) and Humble Administrator's Garden (拙政园)

About 30 minutes by High-speed train (HST) from Shanghai is the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province.  I have always wanted to visit Suzhou but finding the time to take a side trip from Shanghai is always a challenge.  But I hear so much from Chinese nationals on how beautiful Suzhou is.  On this trip I made sure I included Suzhou in my itinerary.  

My trip by HST from Huangshan to Suzhou falls on one of the busiest travel days in China - May 1.  It's International Labor Day and China shuts down for the next 5 days.  Almost everyone is on holiday.  Suzhou is one of the most popular tourist destinations in China.  Whoever planned my itinerary did not make things easy.  You would think that I'd go from Shanghai to Suzhou first, since it is closest.  Then I may have avoid the holiday crowd in Suzhou.

2nd Class Section, a little crowded

Nevertheless, I am happy that I finally checked Suzhou on my travel list.  I was picked at the train station by the driver and tour guide, Bruce.  We went straight to the UrCove Hyatt Hotel.  It is a beautiful hotel right in the middle of the city.  I told Bruce one of my first priorities is getting some laundry done.  Fortunately, the hotel has free washing machines and dryer.  We put my clothes in the washer, then headed nearby for lunch.  Then it's off to the races. 

There are Four Famous Gardens of China.  They are sometimes known as the Four Legendary Classical Gardens.  All four are on UNESCO World Heritage Site list.  Two are Imperial Gardens built for royalty in northern China and two are Private Scholar Gardens built by elites in Southern China.  The two Imperial Gardens are The Summer Palace in Beijing and Chengde Mountain Resort in Hebei Province.

Before we go on, let's clarify what I mean by garden.  In most cases when we say a garden it usually mans a botanical garden where there are beautiful plants, trees, lake, and beautiful landscape.  Examples are Butchart Garden in Vancouver Island, Canada, Huntington Library and Garden in San Gabriel, California, and Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.  Chinese Classical Gardens has a style that has evolved over 3,000 years.  It's a walled landscaped garden with ponds, rockery, and plants that add meaning to the landscape.  Buildings like halls, pavilions, bridges, towers, art, are intertwined with Chinese philosophy, ideology and aesthetics.  It's a special designation.  That's why there are only four that are designated Classical Chinese Gardens in China.

The other two private gardens are in Suzhou.  They are the Lingering Garden and the Humble Administrator Garden.  Our first stop is the Lingering Garden.  The garden was started back in 1593 and has gone through several ownerships.  This is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Suzhou.

An Artwork

Lake and surrounding

Looking through a window

Inside one of the buildings

A large marble disk with mountain landscape

Rock from a lake that is part of the landscape

The Humble Administrator's Garden was built in the 12th century of the Southern Song Dynasty.  This too has changed hands many times and went through many design changes.  Below are some images from the garden.

The garden was very crowded

A pavilion

One of the pavilions

Window with specially designed pattern

I had such a busy time on my two and a half days in Suzhou that I decided to write two posts on Suzhou.  In the next post I will write about Suzhou Museum and the water town of Tongli.

Bruce and I tried to walk the Old Street in Suzhou on my first day there.  But it was so busy that there was a very long line of tourists waiting to get in.  We didn't even try.  However, on the last morning of my third day in Suzhou I find myself with some time to explore the city on my own.  I decided to randomly roam for a couple of hours. I started with the canal, about a half mile from the hotel.  It was a quiet morning and I was walking past residences along the canal.  Some may have been used as AirBnB rentals.  The city is starting to come alive at that time of the day.

Residences along the canal

A Temple

A Fruit Stand

A Typical Street

Sightseeing Boats

Does this look like Venice?

One of the delights is walking pass many places that sell food.  It reminds me of the food that I grew up with.  Sorry, no croissants, bagels, muffins, waffles, etc.

 

Old Villages in Huangshan - Hongcun (宏村) and Xidi (西递)

Besides Huangshan the mountain, there are two other UNESCO World Heritage Sites in southern Anhui province.  The first is Hongcun and the other is Xidi.  Most tourists who came to Huangshan never thought of visiting these two ancient villages.  I never heard of it.  But my travel consultant put this on the itinerary.  Luckily, I have an excellent guide who has lived in the area for many years.

Hongcun

If you saw the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you may recognize some of the scenes in Hongcun village.  Not only was it an excellent movie (it was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 4) the scenes accurately depicted the architecture of the 18th century.  Hongcun was established in 1131 by Wang Wen, a general, then a prosperous merchant.  It's been preserved for a thousand years and today many of the residences still have people living in them.

The village is arranged in the shape of an ox. with different parts of the village representing parts of the ox.  Today it's a popular tourist attraction.  Many of the residences cater to the tourists - restaurants, souvenir shops,  The pictures below tell the story of the village.

The letter Fu, meaning Blessing

Xidi 

Near Hongcun is another 1,000-year old village that has been well preserved.  It was first built from 1049 to 1053 during the Song Dynasty.  The Hu family are descendants of the Emperor and later as successful merchants in the Ming Dynasty.  The city is dominated by a main street that runs east to west.  This is joined by many alleyways.  The streets are paved with granite from the area.  The village tells a rich history of China.

On the right is the name of the town, Xi Di

A Farmhouse

Our last stop for the day is called Tunxi Old Street.  Below is a picture of the entrance to the Old Street.  Inside is a main street with shops that selling various things like tea, Chinese pastry, souvenirs, etc.  "Old Streets" are common in almost every town in China.  Instead of tearing down old buildings the town would preserve a section and call it "Old Street" representing what it was like many years ago.  It's a way to attract tourists.