Blogs from Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, Asia - page 23

Suzhou is China's well-known "city of gardens", which tops all others in both the number and the artistry of gardens. Dating from Pi Jiang Garden of the Eastern Jing Dynasty,Suzhou's art of gardening has undergone a history of 1, 500 years. There were once over 200 gardens in the city,and 69 of them are still in good preservation today. The Suzhou garden originated from the desire to retire from the strife of officialdom and to shun from worldly affairs. It seeks the return to Nature and the cultivation of temperament. In Taoist philosophy and the refinement of culture underlies the theme of the garden. Hills and waters,flowers and trees,pavilion, terraces,towers and halls constitute the basic garden elements,while the prominent tone is expressed in the dark colour of roof tiles,the grey of bricks,and chestnut brown of ... read more

It's been a long while since i last update the blog. Reason being - we were moving from Suzhou to Wenzhou...and the way the gals bring their bags.. u would think they are re-locating!! The girls are pretty settled in Wenzhou now..having spent almost a week in Wenzhou and staying in their buddies' houses over the weekend...according to Huizhuang - Peggy's buddy stayed in this 7 storey apartment...hmmmm..pretty big for a house...would update the pix and what's interesting soon...everyone is doing pretty okay except for some gals who have a bit of cough n running nose...have been in contact with the gals via sms and also phone call... I've been back home in Singapore since 11th Nov and thankfully the internet connection is pretty okay back home. In Wenzhou, the network was slow and the site ... read more

it's been almost two weeks for us here in Suzhou and the gals have gone through 3 schools now. Today we were at Bo Ai School - a special school for young children with disabilities. It was a good learning journey for our gals as they learnt how to relate to the young charges under their care - playing with them, bringing them out to the garden, eating with them and also coloring pix with them. Tiffany as usual stealed the show by pealing the banana into many many "petals" and she became a hot fav amgst the boys who chased her on their bicycles. Others like Peggy, Ruoshuang, Weilin, Ewe went about in their quiet ways and brought smiles to the kids. It was particularly exciting n thrilling for their young charges to race down ... read more

the girls got more than they bargained for...*grin..in the good sense of course...and they were hosted by the families of students from Xing Hai school. Many of the parents went the extra mile and during our home visitation, they shared with us what they have been treated to....here's a sampling of their immersion in the chinese culture: - a treat to the flavour of the month - hairy crabs - many of our gals have the chance to taste the seasonal crab and for the uninitiated, it's pretty expensive here in s'pore...as it's known for its fragrant roe! - learning how to make dumplings, drinking wine at a wedding dinner, having a famous calligrapher to give personal paintings - all these are part n parcel of the treats that were given to Ling Huan - thankfully ... read more

It's been almost a week in Suzhou, China and the girls are still healthy and chirpy, thanks to our gracious host. Some highlights of what they have done: Chinese Lesson on Suzhou in Computer Lab - equipped with fast broadband access...hmm...i think they seem faster than back in nygh :) The CL tr was very enthuiastic and allowed the girls to copy the ppt slides for their homework..of course, our girls were busy taking notes and one hardworking gal even tried to snap pix off the ppt slides....(no wonder "diligence" is one of our school motto!) sat was a fine bright day as compared to friday where it rained non-stop and the weather turns really cold. The girls were given a treat to 2 famous museums - "kunqu" and also "ping tan" which are two forms ... read more