March 9, 2018 – Shanghai, China – Day 2

Today we took a tour that took outside of Shanghai to the garden city of Suzhou, a sister city of Portland, Oregon. Suzhou is a 5th-century city of canals whose stunning gardens are considered masterpieces. Its majestic classical Chinese gardens are a UNESCO Site.

Suzhou is a city of 6.5 million people, so to us a large city, to them a small city. The center of the city is the old town, where there are no high rises. There are over 300 lakes and canals in Suzhou. It is called the Venice of China or the Water City. You can take a boat from Shanghai to Suzhou; however, we took a bus and it took two hours each way.

The city was built in 514 BC and is one of the oldest and best preserved in China. Originally it was a walled city with a moat. The moat is still there, and is called the Grand Canal; and part of the wall and some of the gates also remain. The industry here is textiles and silk. There is no airport, but there are two international ones in Shanghai, and in Suzhou is where the first railroad station was in 1907.

On the way to Suzhou we went pass many more of the 1,000 skyscrapers they have in Shanghai.

Our first stop was to take a ride on the canals. The smaller canals were built 2000 years ago. They have locks on the small canals which were built for flood control. The canals were mainly used for transportation.

And here is a very special one of laundry and meat. We do not understand the purpose of hanging out the meat.

Our next stop was at the Embroidery Institute.

Established in 1957, Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute now has over 100 specialized experts including senior craftsmen and highly qualified artists. Many silk embroideries found in the Institute are fashioned from top quality silk. With a long history, Suzhou embroidery is characterized by beautiful patterns, elegant colors, and rich and meticulous stitching. It is like an actual painting when observed at a distance, but upon close inspection the individual silk threads can be seen.

I order to preserve and develop the intangible cultural heritage of Suzhou embroidery, the Institute has trained hundreds of thousands of embroidery masters and specialists, including more than 100 Chinese Arts and Crafts Masters, Senior Arts and Crafts Masters, Arts and Crafts Masters, and other specialists.

The elaborate embroidery works created here have been exhibited in more than 120 countries and regions. These delicate embroidery works have been extolled the “The Pride of China” and “The Pearl of Oriental Art” by international friends, wining prizes both at home and abroad more than 10 times. The works have also been appointed as state gifts presented to heads of states.

The grounds were also very interesting. The cat seems to have something it wants under that rock.

From there we went to lunch. It was very good and a million times better than what we had the previous evening. Benny was our tour guide.

We were then off to our last stop the Humble Administrator's Garden. Set over ten acres, about two-thirds of the garden is comprised of scattered lakes dotted with tiny islands. This is one of four famous gardens in China. This was built in the 16^th century so is about 500 years old. At that time, each family owned one of the gardens, and were not open to the public. It is considered a Chinese classical garden.

The first private garden in Suzhou was 2100 years ago. Today, that garden is on top of a hill on the outskirts of Suzhou. Normally these gardens were ½ to 1 acre in size. As time went on these gardens were converted into homes. There are now over 30 gardens in Suzhou with 20 of them open to the public. Nine of those 20 are designated a World Heritage site, so cannot be changed.

The latest garden to be built in the Humble Administrator’s Garden is only 150 years old. In China, a garden contains four elements: water (to simulate the lakes), rocks (to simulate the mountains), plants and buildings.

We were now ready for the ride back to the port. It ended up taking us over two hours because of the traffic. The great part of it was we came through Shanghai when it was getting dark and we saw so many beautiful lights.

Now we have two sea days before we are in Hong Kong. The weather should be in the low 70’s when we get there, so a little bit nicer. Actually we will be in Hong Kong tomorrow morning.