Farewell, Beijing

This morning we bid farewell to our tour guide, Tom. It was bittersweet. He was so gracious and really seemed to care about us. He is truly a lovely man. He put us on a plane to Shanghai, which took about two hours. As we got off the plane, beautiful Chinese girls greeted us each with a rose. Chai is our new guide. He likes to tell silly jokes and is very nice. However, the consensus is that we already miss Tom. Chai rushes us around a lot and that makes it hard for those of us who move slower than the rest of the group.

Since we had to get up at 5 a.m. this morning, I ended up falling asleep on the bus into Suzhou -- pronounced Suze Joe -- so I missed a lot of what Chai had to say about the city. What I do remember is that, like Beijing, Suzhou is a city of skyscrapers and rebuilding. Many of the homes that people have lived in for sometimes centuries are being torn down to build modern high rises. Chai joked that the national bird of China is the crane; but not the bird type of cranes but the cranes that move tons of steel to make skyscrapers. We saw many cranes as we drove through the Suzhou Industrial Park to our lunch restaurant. It was a modern building along a beautiful natural lake. The food is slightly different in the south than in the north in Beijing. More noodles, fish and pork dishes. Good food in both places but again, as in Beijing, way too much of it.

We took a ride on one of the canals in a sweet little motorized boat through the old part of Suzhou. People have lived in these neighborhoods for centuries and the buildings do show the wear and tear of the centuries. People dump their grey water into the canal and I saw trash thrown into it as well. An old lady was washing her clothes in the canal while down river, two men fished for their supper --one even had fish in a net floating in the water. We were able to get out and walk -- more like speed -- though an open air market with vendors selling everything from live frogs to live chickens, steamed breads, cut meats, vegetables and other goods such as metal bowls, blankets, clothing and other household goods. It was fascinating to see as the "street" was only about 15 feet wide and bicycles and motor scooters were also sharing the road with pedestrians.

Another of our stops today was at Tiger Hill. When an ancient king died in battle, he was buried on the hill. People swore they saw a tiger on the hill where the king was buried and thought it was the reincarnation of the king. The king's son built a temple over the gravesite and it is called Tiger Hill. The really interesting part is that the tower leans, just like the Tower of Pisa. It was a beautiful place, with bamboo gardens and lovely flowers and of course, the famous Suzhou stones. So peaceful and tranquil -- I could have stayed there all day. Alas, we had to keep moving. Our last stop was at an embroidery factory, where master embroiderers make the most amazing embroidery pieces that look like real paintings. It can take up to four years to create a piece of embroidery and pieces sold anywhere from $300-$16,000. We could not take pictures inside, which was a shame but could not have done justice to the finished pieces. Simply beautiful.

We are staying at the Marriott Hotel. The hotel rooms are only on the 25th floor and above so we have great views of the city -- but you can still hear the cranes and honks of the motorists 40 floors below -- I am on the 40th floor. Traffic is less here than in Beijing, of course, the the motor scooters and bicyclists do not heed traffic lights or use their lights at all. Very scary, especially since little kids are riding some of these scooters.

Tomorrow is a silk factory and a visit to a government building. Then on to Hanghou. Should be lots of fun!