Cruising The Venice Of The Orient

This morning, we headed out to Venice. Of the east!

Suzhou is a lovely city of canals, arched bridges, whitewashed homes, courtyards, pavilions and ornamental gardens. I just wish it didn’t take 4 hours to drive from Nanjing.

It seems like we’re spending more time driving more than seeing attractions. It took us 3 hours to drive from Shanghai to Wuxi, 3+ hrs from Wuxi to Nanjing and now 4 hours to Suzhou.

I’m not sure why the tour was set up this way, but wouldn’t it have been more efficient to land in Nanjing airport, instead of Shanghai and save ourselves from so much time on the road?

We met our next tour guide, Jason and he escorted us to Hanshan Temple. We climbed the 5 story to take in some great 360 degree views of the grounds.

On one side of the building, you could see the huge stone stele, inscribed with the famous poem called Anchored at Night by the Maple Bridge, describing the ringing of midnight bells at the temple. Since then, people flock here to hear the bells being tolled on Chinese New Year’s Eve, praying for health and happiness in the coming year.

Since the 12th century, Suzhou had become a noted producer of silk. It was the city’s prized commodity. So guess where we were taken to next?

A silk factory to see the entire process of how silk is harvested and of course, the opportunity to purchase silk goods (natch). We saw a room full of live silk worms, eating mulberry leaves and spinning cocoons. There were thousands of cocoons in baskets, just waiting to be cooked via water and steam, which allows for a certain volume of water to absorbed.

This would then cause the sericin around the silk to expand, moisten and dissolve, reducing the gumming force in the silk and thus enabling the silk to be separated during silk reeling. The process is then completed through the stainless steel cocoon-cooking machine.

And if you didn’t already know, the silkworms are cruelly killed inside their cocoons during the boiling stage. Ugh.

On a lighter note, after visiting this factory of death, we were escorted to Shantangjie Watertown aka Venice of the Orient. We boarded our very own private boat and cruised the canal for an hour.

A couple of pics of life by the canal:

Folks here are friendly and open to having their pictures taken. They see a camera and a wave and they’ll happily smile for you.

Tradition meets modernity. Catching dinner set against the backdrop of a modern city.

We were given some time to ourselves after the cruise, when we were dropped off at Guangqian Street, a large pedestrian shopping area.

After dinner, we were escorted to Golden Cock Lake and Suzhou Industrial Park so that we can check out the gate to the east skyscraper, also known as the Gate of the Orient. the $700M British designed, 74 floors superstructure look like a pair of pants, much to the dismay of the Chinese. The archway was suppose to be to China what the Arc de Triomphe is to Paris. Unfortunately, it’s been the butt of internet jokes.

I’ve been writing that we were “escorted” a lot because Jason did just that. He didn’t really talk or engaged with us at all the entire day. It’s not like it was a language barrier issue – he could speak English and would answer any questions we might have – but I think he was just bored. Or too introverted to be a tour guide. He told me he’s had this job for 3 months and that he enjoys it, but he could’ve fooled us. No conversation on the bus, at the silk factory, on the boat and at pants-gate.

We’ve had 5 tour guides so far and I can tell you it makes such a huge difference if you get one who’s enthusiastic in talking their city up, who’s open to sharing insights and making your experience that much better. Jason was like the bored and petulant teenager forced to go on a family road trip. But maybe that’s what you get when you have someone who’s been on that cruise down the canal 50 times already?

Our hotel tonight was a pleasant surprise. I wouldn’t ordinarily post pictures of our hotel/rooms as they all sort of look the same, unless there was something eye-catching or unique. The Howard Plaza Wuzhong Business Club Hotel stood out from the rest of the ones on our trip, with its covered outdoor walkways and neon lights shimmering on the reflecting pond in the garden.

This reminds me of Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone painting. So dreamy.

And they have bathroom picture windows. I’ve always liked this feature ever since Sean and I stayed at the Salish Inn and Spa aka Twin Peak’s Great Northern Hotel at Snoqualmie Falls.