Oh, herro!

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6-14-09

I feel like I should start out with an apology. I am leaving quite a bit out, because whenever I write these entries, it’s after everything’s done with the day, and needless to say, I’m always really exhausted. We’re all pretty much on the move constantly, seeing and experiencing China. As a result, a lot of anecdotes and hilarious stories aren’t being told. I will be going back to edit certain days to add in funny stories, etc. for my previous entries, so be sure to check back often if you’re interested in what else is going on.

We started out today with an hour or so drive out of Shanghai to the nearby city of Suzhou. It wasn’t far enough away to escape the smog, but still close enough for a smaller drive. It was really interesting seeing the buildings shrink as we pulled away from the center of Shanghai. The frequency of tall buildings dropped dramatically until it finally leveled off at a few skyscrapers, but mostly with three or four storied buildings. One thing was that I got to listen to my music for the first time in days. I almost forgot how much I love listening to it. For most of the time I was strumming away at an air guitar in my lap to some thrash metal. I’m sure most of the bus thought it looked pretty stupid, and I wouldn’t really blame them either. Because of the leveling off of the buildings, it was kinda hard to figure out exactly when we got to Suzhou.

The cool thing about Suzhou, its primary feature, is its canals. The city was designed by Wu Zi Xu, who was the prime minister to some big ruler, whose name escapes me at the present. He purposely designed the city to have lots of canals, and this has made the city earn the nickname “Venice of the East”. Another interesting feature is that the city is still on its original site. The city has not suffered any natural disasters in its 2,000 year history. The original city is still very visible within the city walls and the moat, and the modern city expands beyond those original borders.

First we pulled in to one of many famous gardens in Suzhou, the Humble Administrator’s Garden. This place was amazing. I will admit to not being incredibly excited at visiting a garden when I saw it on the itinerary, but it was incredible. The whole thing was huge, and I do mean huge. It wasn’t just a square garden with a white fence and some flowers, blah blah blah. No, this place had artificial mountain crags in it with pagodas on the top, surrounded by a stream that flowed throughout. The river had stone bridges, and the entire perimeter was lined with a covered, traditional Qing Chinese walkway. Interspersed in between the overgrown plants were ten or so pagodas and covered areas. This place was incredible. Whoever designed it did a fantastic job. He incorporated elements of scenery that weren’t even physically in the garden. For example, there is a huge pagoda in Suzhou, and in the garden, you can see the pagoda in the distance. A section of plants and buildings was left purposefully, and yet tastefully, absent to incorporate this pagoda in the distance. This is just one example of how this place was designed. I got a lot of pictures, so don’t worry if my description doesn’t quite cut it. When we first pulled up to the garden in the parking lot, this raggedy-looking guy comes rolling up to us on a skateboard-esque thing, except he was sitting on it, and it was big enough to hold his entire body and then some. He wasn’t big or anything, but it was like a plank with wheels. He just came rolling up to us, repeating, “Money? Money?”

Before going into the actual gardens, a few of the guys had to go to the restroom, and it turns out that there was a three-legged monkey just chilling out in the guy’s bathroom. That deserved its own paragraph.

After the first garden, we grabbed some lunch. The funny thing about this lunch was that I think they were trying to pander to us Americans. Typically at these meals, the waiters bring out large dishes of food for everybody and place them on a round-a-bout in the center of the tables. This time, one of the dishes was a large plate of French fries, and another one had chicken nuggets. This was about the extent of pandering that took place, but it was pretty funny. They even brought out ketchup.

With lunch having been consumed we headed out to the embroidery gallery. Among other things, Suzhou is famous for its silk and embroidery. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but when I walked in, I saw what appeared to be a photograph of Princess Diana. When the short tour began, the guide started out by telling us that the photograph wasn’t a photograph at all, but a highly-detailed, priceless silk masterpiece, crafted over the span of two years. It was incredible. Words cannot do these works justice. Pictures can’t either. You simply have to see the silkwork to understand. I’ll basically leave it at that, because nothing I can say can describe the beauty and majesty of those masterpieces. There was one particular work that looked like a photograph of a garden, with all its flowers in complete bloom. So many fantastic and vibrant colors. But again, it turned out that it was not a picture, but a masterwork. Gradually the quality of the pieces decreased, because they wanted us to buy some of the stuff. All of this stuff is naturally hand made with the highest-quality of silk and so it’s all incredibly expensive. I tried to see if I could buy just some silk material, but that would be like Emeril selling his hands. It definitely was not for sale. I think people underestimate the value of some of the things in China. I mentioned this misconception about Jade yesterday, and it definitely applies to the silk from Suzhou.

Then we headed to the Suzhou museum. This wasn’t as impressive as our other stops today, and the architecture of the complex was more interesting than the actual exhibits themselves. The style was incredibly modern, but still unmistakably Chinese. It showed me that it is indeed possible to “modernize” and yet still retain cultural heritage. For example, the designer included a “modern” Chinese pagoda in a pond in the center of the museum, made of steel and other metals. It seemed like a flawless combination of old and new. I kind of wish the people of Shanghai could have preserved their own architecture instead of the very European and Western examples of skyscrapers they have. Sure, their skyscrapers are pretty unique in that they take a Western style and up the ante, but on the other hand, it made most of Shanghai feel pretty unauthentic, as far as the buildings and actual city went. Not so much in Suzhou, though. Perhaps it was because it isn’t nearly as built up as Shanghai that it still kind of preserves that “old school” feel without seeming old and decrepit.

After the museum, we headed to another garden. This one wasn’t nearly the same size as the last one, but was still impressive in its own right. It was basically a former residence, and the garden consisted of what would have been in the courtyard, and extended throughout the house. Instead of the way most gardens are in the West, I feel like this house seemed to be built around the garden and its design. It was also very quiet, especially compared to the hustle and horns of the outside. We even chilled in a pagoda for what must have been an hour. There was this really cute Chinese couple there that chilled with us. We tried to converse with them a bit as well. An older Chinese man came up too and hung out with us. He was pretty funny. He said Greg was a “Lady Man” because of his good looks, and asked if Tucker was a homosexual. He liked the laugh, and flick his tongue at us, which was… pretty damn weird, really. Either way, he was fun to talk with.

Immediately after touring the garden and hanging out in it for a while, we drove off to dinner. This very old restaurant was based off of the Chinese book “Dream of a Red Chamber” by Cao Xueqin. The ceiling had portraits of all the characters from the epic. It was awesome seeing all of that because just last semester I had to read it for my culture class. The dinner was pretty sweet, too.

Our guide mentioned that she was going to head off for a massage, and we begged her to take us with her. In hindsight, some of us felt kind of bad and felt as if maybe we had imposed on her free time a bit. Either way, most of us went out to get Chinese massages. There’s a lot of hitting involved, and the lady I had started kneading my butt, and the only thing I could think of was “butt fluffing” (that’s for you Jon and Kat). It hurt a little, bit was incredibly relaxing. I am indeed a whore for massages.

As I said at the beginning, a lot is getting left out of these updates. But don’t worry, a lot of videos are being taken to describe some of the parts of the day that words could not do justice to. I will be posting those whenever I get the chance, and hopefully I’ll be able to go back and edit in some of the funny stories from previous days as well.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to comment so I know who’s actually reading this thing!

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Comments

[Mom]

[e-mail]
lOVE YOUR PICTURES. hOW ABOUT SOME NAMES UNDER "PEOPLE" PICTURES. i AM GLAD YOU ARE HAVING SUCH A GREAT TIME.

[Matt]

Crags!
Whenever you said that the garden had crags I immediately thought "GUTS!". Agro crags in China. Ooooohhhh baby

[Bucket]

I figure this is Austin, and yeah, I thought the same thing when I went back and re-read it.