Suzhou

Suzhou, or “The Venice of China” as it’s sometimes called, was the destination of our first weekend excursion outside of Shanghai. Suzhou is one of many water towns around Shanghai that are popular weekend retreats for the Shanghainese, and it is also the largest and most famous. In reality, Suzhou is not a “town” at all but a city of 6 million. Despite its size and large tourist population, we were able to find some peace and quiet in the smaller gardens as well as walking along the historic flagstone streets that run alongside the canals. The historical center of the city where we spent our weekend, is encompassed by the Waicheng River, forming a rectangular boundary that is crisscrossed by many smaller canals and by many many bridges. The water towns get their name from the many canals that pattern the city and although it was not up to par with Venice, I was by no means disappointed.

We arrived at the Suzhou train station at 10:30am and headed by taxi to the Suzhou Museum. The Museum is the last building designed by the internationally famous Chinese architect, I.M. Pei. Pei has done a great deal of work in the states but is most famous for his controversial glass pyramid addition to the Louvre in France. He is originally from Suzhou and wanted to do his final design for his hometown. The museum was free and we spent about an hour there, mostly enjoying the architecture but also the calligraphy, carvings, embroidered silk, and watercolor paintings that were on display. I found the exterior of the museum to be fairly unimpressive but greatly enjoyed the windings halls, courtyards, and many skylights. The museum is in a historic area and I. M. Pei had obviously taken the context into consideration when designing the museum’s appearance by maintaining similar proportions and colors but I thought he really missed an opportunity to emphasize the roofline like so many of the historical buildings do with their wood carved eaves, undulating roof tiles and stone statuary on the ridges.

The museum abuts the largest and most famous of the classical gardens, the Humble Administrator’s Garden, our next destination. The Suzhou gardens are characterized by their use of stone, water, winding paths, elaborate wooden pavilions and arcades, as well their use of whitewashed walls to divide and organize the garden. Even the smallest gardens have so many walls and winding paths that you can easily become “lost”. The Humble Administrator’s garden was very large and very crowded. The garden seemed more like a park than a private garden with its lotus filled lakes, islands and footbridges and crowds of people. The highlight for me was the abundance of lotus plants; I have never seen so many!

The Suzhou museum and the Humble Administrator’s garden are located on a wonderful flagstone pedestrian street lined with small shops and stalls selling a variety of snacks and souvenirs. After perusing the goods and having lunch, we decided to head towards our hotel to check-in and shower since we were all drenched and sticky from the thick heat. While walking towards our hotel, we happened upon a fantastic pedestrian street called Pingjiang Lu that followed the canal South. We slowly made our way to the hotel, but were regularly distracted by the wonderful cafes and shops along the route. This street was most pleasant since it was shaded and quiet in comparison to the market street where the museum and first garden were. We headed back to Pingjiang Lu Saturday evening to see canal and the shops all lit up; quite a sight! We enjoyed a couple bottles of chilled white wine while sitting alongside the canal and thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Misha and I were the early risers on Sunday and we ventured out to do some watercolors along the canal before the others awoke. I had been warned by Brad about the crowds that are drawn to a foreigner attempting artwork in public as he had attracted quite an audience while sketching at the Humble Administrator’s Garden. I purposefully chose what I thought was a quiet location but none-the-less attracted a number of inquisitive onlookers who are not at all shy about looking directly over your shoulder and asking a few questions. Everyone that passed by was very friendly and seemed genuinely interested in what Misha and I were doing. Even the small wooden tour boats that passed by all said “Nin hao” (hello) and one commented on how beautiful either I or my painting was, not sure which… The boat rowers giving canal tours are often dressed in silk robes and will sing opera as they row and I enjoyed whenever they passed by. One nice man stopped to tell me the name of the bridge I was painting and was kind enough to write the bridge’s name in Chinese at the bottom of my painting!

At 11am Misha headed back to reconvene with our friends, have some delicious dumplings for lunch, and visit two more gardens before calling a close to our trip. The Garden of the Master of the Nets and the Blue Wave Pavilion Garden were both fantastic! Both were fairly empty and I could feel a much better sense of how the gardens were meant to be experienced. The gardens had all been built between the 11^th and 16^th century, (so old!), for various families as an extension of their homes and provided the yin-yang balance between urbanity and nature. To get to the Garden of the Master of the Nets, we had to venture through a tiny cobblestone alleyway crammed with little shops, which was quite delightful. Once at the garden, we spent a good two hours caught up in its beauty as well as a pretty sizable thunderstorm! We were all quite content to sit undercover of one of the pavilions and watch the lighting show. After a suffocating morning of intense humidity, the rain was a very welcome change. We even enjoyed some delicious flower tea at the tea pavilion in the garden.

I think we all thoroughly enjoyed the trip and as of Tuesday, we’re all still a little tired! A coworker of Brad and mine brought us some tea leaves last week after we had a conversation about his tea, so now we have some fresh tea to enjoy whenever we feel sleepy!