Give me more of Suzhou

Suzhou introduced its magic to us with the night life, but clearly, more was to come. We were in the powerful capital of the Wu Dynasty, famed for its successful merchants, heavenly gardens, fantastic canals and 2500 years of history. We were about to discover a city size museum, thus, instead of moving by public buses from one place of interest to another, we trusted Lonely Planet and looked for a bicycle rent, keeping in mind that “You are lucky if you rent for 30 Yuan(3 Euros)/day”. Thanks for the advice Lonely Planet; we got our bicycles for 20Yuan a day. While we were pedaling through the narrow and car less lanes, we had no clue that the city was surrounded by a colossal industrial park which cherishes the citizens in a high leveled life standard and preserves the historical places.

Great artists and distinguished architects supported by wealthy families changed Suzhou into a temple of flourishing classical gardens since the 4th Century. Nowadays, only a dozen gardens have survived the destruction of wars and development. Julien and I decided to visit four of them, and I’ll describe only two of them, both descriptions will be melt in one. Nah I am not lazy at all, let’s say I shorten it because of political issues. This is the best excuse in China, if you don’t want people to ask you questions, you whisper “political issues” and they drop it, please do so.

The first garden is called Humble Administrator’s Garden. As most Chinese gardens are, this one is a 5ha microcosm of earth, reproducing natural elements such as forests and sea. However; Humble Administrator’s Garden is bluffing, the scenery is doubled in most places thanks to the water covering one-third of the garden area, reflecting pavilions as if they were unreal, transforming bridges into rainbows. The garden was thought in such a detailed way that constructions and trees do not disturb sight at all, providing a spectacular illusion of perspective, piling pagodas, massive shapeless rocks and water streams in a dream of harmony. A small museum describes the techniques of building Chinese gardens with plans and pictures. The Humble Administrator’s Garden’s pictures taken during different seasons give an idea of how each spot look wonderful and perfectly fit the natural environment no matter how the weather is.

Out of here, we grab our bikes and head to the Liu Garden, passing through very local neighborhoods, crossing canals, eventhough the rainy weather rinses our clothes. Once arrived to the Liu Garden, for the very first time since we had left Dalian, we felt the Chinese holiday around us. The garden was way too crowded; we were supposed to walk a 700meters long covered lane and discover this very rocky place trough perspective plays, but we had no choice but surfing on a human flow of visitors. The tricky thing is, in Chinese museums and gardens, you rarely see lanes for tickets (the lane concept does not exist yet), and so you cannot know how crowded it is. As a rookie, you think it is empty inside; and it is a hell of a surprise every time you step into the garden. They even manage to cut the sound off at the gate (Chinese are very very noisy tourists), so as you step in, your ears are immediately waken up and you see hundreds of Chinese going back and forth with their eyes: the foreigners – the garden, the garden – the foreigners, foreigners, foreign, for, f, p, pic, picture, take picture, take a picture of the foreigners...

Alright, the afternoon’s visit was a bit disappointing, and we were leaving the day after for Nanjing. So we enjoyed Suzhou a bit more, driving to the KFC first, to the train station right after. We wanted to see the bird market in this very bird flued period, but it was unfortunately closed, what a shame. We did not go back to the night club we checked up the night before. Instead, we fought with prostitutes who wanted us to have a beer with them, in their bar. We ended up in a foreigners bar around a pool for a calm evening.

I’ll meet you in Nanjing, reader.