Today, I am posting our updates from Friday, June 3rd, Saturday, June 4th, and Sunday, June 5th:
Friday, June 3
What a long day! Sorry this one is so short, but it was a lot of traveling today:
This AM started early (4 AM early) as we prepared to leave Beijing. We barely made our flight to Shanghai (due to the "necessity" of our entire group remaining together every step of our journey- including airport security) - but we did, and arrived at the Shanghai airport just in time to load onto a bus and make our way to Suzhou and Wuxi.
We were on the bus for around 1.5 hours and made a couple of stops in Wuxi. The first was at the Tai lake (famous for it's "rockery" - large rocks found on the bottom of the lake and used to decorate gardens and fishing industry). It is the 3rd largest lake in China - over 2000 hectares in size. The day was foggy/polluted- so it was difficult to really appreciate the view (thus, no pictures of the experience as it was nearly impossible to appreicate!).
The second stop was at the Fu garden - a large garden famous for its Tai lake rockery decorations.
{As you can see, it appears very overcast in this photo - it's actually pollution}
Many of our crew are growing tired of the food - and so our dinner plans were cancelled so that everyone could have the opportunity for KFC or McDonalds. I admit, even we welcomed the change!
Saturday, June 4
We woke up in Suzhou and packed the busses for another busy day of traveling and sight seeing. We were joined by a new local tour guide, Tim, who we really enjoyed. We had two stops planned in Suzhou- the first at the Lingering Garden, the second at a local silk factory. The day began overcast and had progressed to a steady drizzle by the time we arrived at the Lingering Garden.
Once a private residence, the garden (which is really a large indoor/outdoor house) is now a public space protected as a cultural treasure by UNISCO. Even on a cloudy day, the home did a remarkable job of capturing natural light. It was really a series of rooms connected by covered corridors. It was truly a beautiful space.
Pay special attention to this sign that informed us of the expected behavior:
Throughout the garden, traditional Chinese musicians dressed in traditional clothing were stationed. We heard both vocalists and instrumentalists- and we even knew one of the songs!
{We did not know this song}
The steady rain provided a nice background to the music - I can imagine that it must have been a relaxing place to live!
After the lingering garden, we made our way to the silk factory. When we arrived, we were greeted with display cases full of silk worm cocoons!
We watched the workers soften the cocoons in water and then how each cocoon is unravelled into thread (eight strands from eight different cocoons are used for a single thread.
We also watched the process for making silk batting for silk comforters. It is hard to believe that a single cocoon can stretch to "king size!"
As with most of our factory visits, we felt rushed through the "learning process," only to spend too much time in the government sponsored shops. Suzhou seems like a beautiful city- we wish there had been time to get off the bus and wander around. We bid farewell to Tim and began our 2 hour bus ride to Hangzhou. When we arrived, we were taken to a street known for shopping for over 2000 years! There were loads of fun shops, but we only had 30 minutes to look! :( We were taken to dinner and then back to our hotel for the evening.
Sunday, June 5th -
Today we started our adventures by taking a boat tour of the Tai lake. We walked through a park to get to the harbor and our whole group boarded a very asian looking boat and enjoyed a 45 minute cruise where we had lovely views of the Hangzhou skyline.
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Our time in Souzhou and Hangzhou have been very short, but I can't help but think i would really enjoy spending more time in these beautiful cities!
After the boat tour we began traveling into the country a bit to visit a tea plantation. We learned that Hangzhou is famous for it's tea production - specifically green tea. Green tea is made from the tiny end leaf "buds" of the tea plant, and grown in rows along the hillside. It is picked in April, so there wasn't a lot of action going on while we were there.
After the boat tour we began traveling into the country a bit to visit a tea plantation. We learned that Hangzhou is famous for it's tea production - specifically green tea. Green tea is made from the tiny end leaf "buds" of the tea plant, and grown in rows along the hillside. It is picked in April, so there wasn't a lot of action going on while we were there.
The same tea plant is used to make green, white, and black teas - the difference being the age of the leaf and the preparation process (black tea is fermented). The green tea leaves are dried in a giant wok and then ready for use! there are three different levels of green tea: the top level is Emperor's tea (and is very expensive!) the middle level is a combination of emporor's tea and a lower quality tea leaf and the lowest level is simply the lowest quality tea leaf. According to our guides, only the lowest quality of green tea is allowed to be exported!! In addition to learning about the process of preparing green tea, we also learned a bit about it's antioxidant value...
Since we are tea lovers, we of course bought some of the "higher quality" tea that would not be exported to the US as well as my favorite - Jasmine Tea or Mo Li Wah. Yum!
The Tea plantation was a fun stop. I loved this quaint little fountain in the garden of the plantation...How appropriate!
From Hangzhou we then started the trip to Shanghai- the final destination of our trip. We arrived in Shanghai and went straight to The Bund - which is like a river walk area. The Bund is full of European style buildings built pre 1940s. The buildings have since been turned into banks and shops like Prada and Dolce and Gabbana. According to our tour guide, these buildings still look so nice because they were "built to last" - not sure what he is saying about Chinese construction.... The sky scrapers here are a sight to behold. Again, according to our guide, 10 years ago, there were over 30,000 in Shanghai- I guess no one has cared enough to count since then. The tallest one is 101 stories tall- so tall it is most often hidden in the clouds. We will spend one night in a nice hotel before relocating to the educational hall for the remainder of our trip. Here are a couple of shots of the Shanghai skyline (photo editing a la Mr. Maestro):
{Note the "bottle opener" - second tallest building in the world - 110 stories}
{we do not know what this building is, but these "pods" are actually parts of the building suspended}
{The Pearl Tower is the 4th tallest TV tower in the world - it has a glass floor on the upper "pearl!"}
