You Go To Suzhou

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It probably isn’t a good idea to be behind in our blogs, but at the moment I am trying to recall what we did 3 days ago - a hard task when you are feeling fluey - yes Iz and I have both come down with the dreaded wog in the last few days, and aren’t feeling the best…but here goes nothing!

The 27th of September saw us partaking in a tea ceremony in a small village outside of the town. Hangzhou has definitely been my favourite city on this trip, because it is just so beautiful, but it is still covered with thick smog, so it would have been even more breathtaking without the pollution.

Many of the farmers produce tea on a large scale. There are three varieties, but green tea is definitely the most popular. It is the not fermented like the other two varieties. We were able to see the tea bushes, and gaze at the fields, where workers were picking the crops. The first crop is actually collected by the government as a tax for the use of the land - this crop is the best, and costs the most to buy.

We enjoyed a traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony, which is a lot shorter than the Japanese ceremonies, and some people (like Izzy) consumed more than one glass of the green stuff. I don’t really like the taste, although it is better than any other green tea I have tried. Tea bags are a big no no here, and the Chinese refer to them as the scrapings off the floor. Everything is very fresh, and we were told to consume everything in the glass - which meant the floating leaves as well!

After people purchased some tea to take home, and we had walked through the obligatory gift shop, attached to the tea house, selling everything from chopsticks, to jade jewellery and silk outfits, it was back on the bus to reach our next destination - Wuzhen.

This is a small village, over 1000 years old, that could be called China’s Venice…the village is built around the canals, and we had a traditional Chinese Banquet - including chickens feet soup - PASS! The dishes were a little too traditional for me, and I didn’t eat much. It is a little overwhelming eating Chinese twice a day, every day!

We had time to take a quick tour of the town, and walked through the tiny alleys, over bridges, and into some of the shops. It was quite a hot day, and very muggy, so getting back to the air conditioning was a real relief! Lots of ladies from the tour have invested in fans, to help with the heat.

It was still a two hour journey to Suzhou - and the bus was very bumpy, but we did eventually make it, and visited another garden - this one called the Master’s Fishing Net. The residence once belonged to a very wealthy family, who had built the original garden and some of the buildings, but more sections had been added over the years. We were able to walk through the rooms, and understand what life would have been like for wealthy Chinese people…there is a real feeling of tradition here…from the greeting room, to the formal room, to the daughter’s highset bedroom. Everything seems to have a certain place.

We had another traditional banquet that night for dinner, and then headed back to our hotel - all of which have been wonderful. I think the star system here is slightly different to anywhere else in the world. Tomorrow it was on to China’s buzzing city of Shanghai.

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