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On Friday, 5-15, we were driven to Suzhou in about 1 1/2 hours. Suzhou is a much bigger city than Nanqiao, and is more modern but also has many more traditional Chinese sights. We went through some countryside on the way, there were many farms and greenhouses along the side of the freeway. This entry will be about Friday.
We went first to Tyco China where Jim used to spent much time. It had been arranged for Leah and I to spend the morning with Amy, who is from Winston-Salem, her husband is working at Tyco China for 2 yrs. The Tyco driver took us to pick her up and then we went shopping at the old part of walking street. There is a temple called The Yuan Miao Temple which was built in 276AD and seems to separate the old and new sections of walking street. The old section has mainly traditional Chinese items, silk items, Chinese style clothes, purses, etc. I enjoyed talking to Amy, they have been there for 5 months, so she was able to give me many tips. Many stores now have set prices, but if not, you are expected to bargain. Amy handled the
Storefront
This si a typical little storefront, these are everywhere, this is a shoestore bargaining for me. A silk nightgown we got Leah started at 65 yuan and we only ended up paying 20 yuan! That's approximately $3 in American dollars. One American dollar equals about 6.8 yuan.
Leah and I met back up with Jim and the other men from Ace for lunch, which we had at an upscale traditional Chinese Restaurant. Then Horton and one other man went back to Nanqiao and the driver, Xian(Shaun) Ping, and Hei (Hay) stayed with us. Hei was our "host" for the weekend. These people also consider him a foreigner because he is from Hong Kong, which is part of China, but I guess the Chinese don't really consider it part of China. Hei speaks good English and was a lot of fun, Xian Ping doesn't speak English, but was very polite.
After stopping for many directions, we arrived at our hotel, the Suzhou Garden View Hotel, a beautiful Chinese Style hotel.
I was soooo thankful to have a soft bed to sleep in! (Our bed in the apartment is VERY hard!) There were beautiful gardens tucked in around the hotel. We rested awhile and then walked to the modern area of walking street.
It was very pricey with your top designer names - not my style! I actually enjoyed the old section much more. We did enjoy browsing in a candy store, candy fish??? candied chicken feet???? dried peas???? Shall I bring some home for anyone? We did find some normal things and some rice cake for Leah and I. What they call cake is nothing like our cake though. Leah got some attention there, but not like shopping in Nanqiao - I'll include the pic Jim took of us getting our pic taken. This has been the only time they wanted me in the picture! Usually they just want their pic with Leah. Jim chose to go to TGI Friday's for dinner. They had mostly Western dishes and some Chinese. It was good, Jim had ribs, I had a steak and Leah enjoyed a hot dog and fries.
After dinner, we went to Rainbo Walk at Jin Ji Lake. There is a walkway round a very large lake and this area had much shopping. There were supposed to be fireworks and a laser light show, supposedly done every night, but for some reason it didn't happen. There were a lot of
Labor Day display
The Chinese Labor Day was just before we arrived and we were told that these display which we saw around town were for that people and vendors were selling toys and some kind of good luck lanterns that the people would light and then set off into the air. Before heading back to the hotel, we had Cold Stone Ice Cream! Just like home except they also had Green Tea and Black Tea ice cream!
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Carol Welch
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Wow...what a wonderful adventure! And someone from Winston Salem right there. :-) Bamboo scaffolding! oh my! Thank God for TGIF... ;-) ~carol