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Published: November 21st 2008
creeping shadows
into the courtyard at 7amWe have travelled by train from South China to the North, straight from the tropics and into Autumn, via Shanghai and the middle of the country into Suzhou arriving at 5.30am, seeing very little.
Immediately, the atmosphere in this city is recognisably different to anything we’ve previously experienced in China. There is a nip in the air, almost comparable to an early English Autumn and makes us happy. The streets are empty at 5.30am, just as in Kunming.
On arrival, we exited the small northern train station and were immediately aware of our changed environment. The buildings are lower, the weather nips and the air feels clean.
The taxi driver dropped us off at the last point that a car could access, stopping by an old bridge leading to Pingjiang - the oldest area in town. We had booked a hostel in the old quiet lanes. Because the taxi driver could not find the location, he called the hostel and we were given more detailed instructions on how to find the place by Otis, the friendly guy who looks after the place for two days a week. After walking the empty lanes by the canals for while, we
bumped into a friendly guy who was Otis - he'd come to look for us.
The hostel faces one canal and backs onto another. It is a rare building in today’s terms. It is a home that has been passed down by 4 generations of the Pang family and is currently owned by a very quiet man who has been here all the time that we have but mostly lives in Beijing.
Inside the calm oasis of the hostel, I wandered around its spaces and found 3 small courtyard gardens within, one with ancient traditional rocks, one with an ancient wisteria tree and the other with bamboos and a washing line. The reception area, once the sedan hall, housed an enormous TV and one comfy chair but apart from that, the rest of the buildings have not changed externally but have been refurbished to house bedrooms for the hostel . An hour after arriving in Suzhou, we were looking around our room which was to become home for a week. The room is housed in the south facing side which faces into the back courtyard with the stone garden.
Our room has stone floors and the underside
of the roof tiles are visible and ripple upwards.
In our room, are two ¾ beds and a small bathroom - no heating at all and it is now cold - at night it drops to zero. After unpacking necessary change of season clothes, we headed for the streets to find our bearings - it was 7am and the sun had risen and was almost into the little courtyard garden by our room.
I know from reading the old books that the head of the family would have once stayed in this side of the building because it is warmest. I can hardly imagine what it would have been like to live here in the 40’s with 4 generations of the same family present. It’s big enough and has the old grand feeling of many life times of stories.
Since arriving, I know, from experience, that the old lanes in Pingjiang are alive by 7am. Outside the quietly hidden courtyards of the hostel, a world races by. Everyone jostles for space with bikes and people on the tiny pavements. Everything is permitted in the old lanes except cars. Today, electric bikes, push bikes, people, and even motor bikes,
washing, dogs, kids playing, birds in cages, puppies out in the sun all jostle for the same walk ways. I have seen two collisions, one included me and the other was a woman and a bike.
At night, in our room, we sleep on one of the small beds under two quilts. At the moment it’s one of my favourite places to be but I can’t stay long because there is so much to see when the sun rises. At night, when we are deep under the cover and my arm is sticking out, the cold bites my skin and I feel alive. We are the only guests in the hostel because it is out of season. The current quiet Owner, Cathy who helps out at the hostel, and Chris and I walk around the place with our coats and gloves on at all times. There is no heating at all but it is part of the charm of the place and it is a general lifestyle in China - no one, has heating. When sitting in one of the courtyard gardens, you can sense that there has been little change for the 200 years that this building has
been here - both inside and out of the hostel by the canal. It’s been renovated to contain wooden and tiled floors but I know that the surrounding residential homes (from glancing inside) do not even have these and that the people still use the wells for drinking and washing water and that there are communal toilets in the lanes. The neighbours sit outside in the sun facing lane - an extension of their homes, warming their bones in the Autumn sunshine.
Every morning, I am up between 6 and 7am and want to find out more.
On the second morning, I sit outside with the neighbours who own a chicken shop. More and more women come out of the tiny doorway and I think that many families live behind in a labyrinth of small homes.
After two hours of sitting with the neighbouring ladies, the only thing I can successfully understand and answer is about family and my age. These are the things that mainly interest them. I want to get to know some of these people and find out about their lives but I cannot speak their language enough to find out what has happened so
I will tell you of what I can see and what is here.
The Chicken Shop Outside the chicken shop, as I sit with the women who knit and chat, a customer arrives and chooses her chicken. From the moment of choice to the bird being placed into a carrier bag to take away takes 8 minutes. Seeing chickens in cages and having their throats cut is not a thing I am used to but I am getting more so as it is a way of life here. There are chicken shops all over China of varying sizes - all containing live chickens or other birds that I don’t even know the name for.
On the third morning, I am up at 6.30 and sitting by the well down the lane with the locals. At first, they are not sure what I want or what I am doing there. I can see that they don’t trust me. But after sitting and writing and trying to talk to them in my pigeon mandarin, I am allowed to blend more into the background and eventually am more accepted after I help lift quilts onto the washing lines.
I’m even passed the baby, who didn’t like me. As I sit with these people, I long to be able to understand them properly and to be invited into their tiny homes, which, I can see from passing the lanes, go back and back deep between the two canals. A man is very proud to tell me that he is 85. I look into his face and wonder what he has seen in his life but I am not able to ask - yet.
On the fourth morning, the Autumn mist is curling over the old roof of the hostel. I look out into the lane and see that the chicken shop is already set up next door - it's 7.45. The chickens have swelled in number again so the cages have been replenished. After three days and countless conversation over my age, the neighbour has finally accepted me and with a stoic nod greets me whilst she is eating steaming noodles. As I sit here writing this, I can hear the calling of the sugar cane seller. I know it is him because I saw him yesterday, but I don’t know what he’s calling. It feels calm
as I open the lattice windows into the garden and I know that I must take time to enjoy here because when we move out of the hostel, it will be more difficult to be immersed into this old cultural part of town as we'll be in a more modern building because there is nothing to rent here.
We have no idea what this day will bring. The last three days have been busy. We both have found teaching jobs (subject to teaching example class and passing the health examination) we’ve been to see apartments, gardens, back alleys, shops, the food and flower and animal markets, I've found a great cake shop and I’ve joined the bookworm library. We’re going to stay in this city for a while. There’s still so much to see and learn. I understand that the surrounding area also has many old water towns and I want to go and see. And so, in four days, we have made the start of a new temporary life.
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Billy
non-member comment
Exciting travel
Anyway, travel is always exciting. as you say, it makes your sights widely and farther. I admire your journey.