Thoughts on China

Well, I’m going to do a couple of posts with just links to pictures, so the page will load a little quicker. You can see the pictures from this post here.

Once again, like in Hangzhou, you get the hang of the place after a couple of days, which makes it easier to get around. One thing that would be extremely helpful in all these cities is a map of the bus lines that is up to date. I didn’t need that today, though, as I found a bicycle rental place fairly near my hotel that rented me a bike for an entire day for Y10 ($1.33). Granted, this was an older bike, but it did have a bell and a basket and it worked the entire day…now maybe you can see why I was so upset with that lady in Hangzhou at Y15 an hour…

So, my first stop was the Silk Museum. It was interesting, I suppose, but not fascinating. I got there at 8:50 and they let me in, even though they officially open at 9:00. Maybe they just hadn’t set up the working exhibits for the day yet, I don’t know.

Then, I rode to Canglang Pavilion. I had to ride around a while to find the entrance! Anyway, it was nice, but not very well taken care of as compared to the gardens I have already seen. You can definitely see differences in the staffs of the different places. Some are proud of their garden and keep it up well and others are just there filling space, as was the case at this place, unfortunately.

Well, then I had a very long bike ride looking for a place that I had found on the web called Suzhou Embroidery. I never did find their showroom and they didn’t return an email I sent them yesterday. It’s too bad, because it looks from their web site like they do high quality work. I just want to see it before I pay for it. Oh, well, that chewed up about 2 hours of the day. As it was already about 2:15 PM, I wanted to go to the Humble Administrator’s garden again, since it was by far my favorite and I got a guided tour there which, even though I was the only one, didn’t allow me the freedom to just enjoy the surroundings. Again, I lost my bearings a little (though I brought a compass and a map with me…) and ended up driving by my Hotel, which is on the very northern street inside the old city boundary. At least it was fairly near.

So, back I went. By the time I got there, it was 3:00 and the garden closes at 5:00. It was much more crowded this time, with a few tour groups, etc. But, it was still amazing and I got to explore a lot of areas that I didn’t really get to see the first time, so I’m glad I went back. If you’re planning a trip to Suzhou, I highly recommend the Humble Administrator’s garden as the one to spend the most time in. It blows the others away, in my (humble) opinion!

Finally, I left there and went to return the bike. Since I had it for 9 hours, it worked out to a little over Y1 (13½¢) an hour. I call that reasonable!

Since I skipped lunch, I was extra hungry. I asked a gentlemen if he knew a good restaurant (in Chinese, of course) and he pointed across the street. I asked again if it was good and he shook his head yes. Well, somebody had puked on the sidewalk in front of the place, which was set back a ways and up a few steps from the road. When I went up to the door, one of the people inside was coughing. These weren’t the signs I was looking for! But, being adventurous, I went ahead just the same. Of course the restaurant menu was all in Chinese, and they, too, didn’t understand my pronunciation of pork, or chicken. I finally had to resort to the pantomime, which they understood, but found pretty amusing. Then, they asked if I wanted 牛肉 (niúròu, or beef). I said that today I wanted chicken or pork, and also wanted dofu and liked hot and spicy. So, here is what I ended up with. It was very good. I also got a bowl of rice and a big bottle of Suntory beer and only paid Y30 ($4). The tea they served with the meal wasn’t very good, though, and it tasted like the teapot had been used for rice wine before.

Final Comments about Suzhou

The good

The people here are friendly and will bend over backwards to help you. I bought a few snacks at a place yesterday, while I was looking for the cleaners that I had dropped some clothes off in the morning. I asked the attendant there (there were other workers there, as well) where the laundry was located (I had a card with the address and even a little picture map, but had been given different directions and had been walking around for about an hour trying to find the place). When she asked the lady at the cash register and I was directed to where I had already been three times, I explained (again, all in Chinese) that I had been there three times. So, she took the card and told me she would help me find it. Even though she was speaking Chinese, we went on a wild goose chase for over half an hour. I told her that there was a phone number on the card and I’d give her some money (since I left my cell phone at the hotel) if she’d call the place. She didn’t want money, called the place, and then led me there. Another guy led me a good five blocks to find something and two others offered, but I declined, not wanting them to go out of their way.

In addition to the beautiful gardens, the city has taken a cue from them and put nice little touches from them in the parks and sidewalks around the city, such as the picture of the bonzai trees in the median strip on one of the new super roadways, and some patterns show up on some of the walkways in the city.

the bad

There are tons of scooters and electric bikes here, and I don’t think one of the owners understands that you need to get your brakes fixed when they start screeching from metal on metal contact. The sound is deafening and akin to fingernails on the chalkboard. As you go around the city, it’s almost constant and it is so screeching loud that I’m sure it affects the hearing of the residents here.

and the ugly…

The entire city is dirty. I mean filthy dirty, like it is covered in a layer of grimy dirt. The pictures I’ve shown of the walkways in the garden are what they would look like if they were clean. I clicked on the “I’m feeling lucky” button in Picasa to get them to show up so nicely. In reality, they, too, were covered with a layer of grime. While other cities may have had a few issues with this, Suzhou could really use a good rain with detergent!

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Well, it’s 8:30 in the morning and I need to take a shower, pack, and take a bus to Yixing. Talk to you later…