Terrific Times on Tuesday

Today was amazing. End of story. Best day thus far in China.

We began the day early, leaving the hotel at 8:30 A.M. We boarded a bus (without Jing) to Suzhou with a new tour guide named Chris (his American name). We spent 2 hours on the bus experiencing Chinese traffic and picturesque views. Suzhou was once one of the biggest cities in the world. Now it is considered “The backyard of Shaghai”. It is often called a small city, even though the population is 6 million.

Upon arriving in Suzhou we visited the former “humble administrator gardens”. A lot of the pond was frozen over. At the time that we visited the garden it was 27 degrees outside and felt like 17 degrees! The garden was so pretty, even in the wintertime. I can only imagine what it looks like in the summer time! There were many limestone structures that had been placed inside the gardens as well as pagodas. The pagodas were neat to see, because it is what most Americans typically think of when it comes to Chinese architecture. We learned about the differences between Ming and Qing furniture. We also saw bonsai trees. The youngest was over 100 years old, and the oldest was over 400 years old! They reminded me of the trees from the Lion King.

After visiting the gardens we visited the silk embroidery institute. There we saw how the silk is used to produce one sided and two sided pieces of artwork. The artwork is so delicate it looks like a painting. On one side may be an orange cat and on the other, a black. However you cannot tell the difference or see the other one from each side. It is so amazing! A one sided silk embroidery piece takes one year to complete. A two sided silk embroidery piece takes 3 years to complete! We got to view the women hard at work. The women work in the dark, because light will fade the silk. We also got to visit the shop where they sell these silk embroidery pieces.

After the gardens we had a delicious lunch at a local fancy restaurant. So far we have eaten at all upscale restaurants and have been served a variety of different foods. The only Chinese food that we have experienced that they also have in the USA is rice. Everything else is different. Most of us are crossing our fingers for sweet and sour chicken or sesame chicken. The Chinese restaurants are very accommodating to the vegetarians in our group. We are served separately and it is neat to try different styles of tofu and vegetarian dishes.

Suzhou is known as the “Venice” of China. We took a small boat through the canals and got to see what the houses looked like. Many of the houses were 200 and 300 years old. There were clothes being washed in the river, as well as being hung up to dry. We even saw dead chickens hanging from clotheslines, being prepared to eat for the next meal. We also saw a Chinese couple having wedding photographs made. All throughout Suzhou there were many wedding dress shops for western weddings as well as Chinese weddings. It was really neat to see those as well.

After we got off the bus we headed to the Silk Reeling Factory and Embroidery Research Institute. We got to see how the silk is produced from the egg of the worm until it is sold. It was so neat touring the factory and seeing the process step by step. I had the opportunity to stretch finished silk out to help make a silk comforter. That was so neat! The silk is tougher than you think and was actually hard to pull apart. Seeing the types of products that the silk institute sold was also very interesting. There were a lot of clothes, undergarments as well as accessories and jackets. It was so neat to see so many things made out of 100% silk. While we were touring the institute we ran into other Americans. It is the first American’s we have seen since we have been in China. It was nice to finally see some others that looked like us!

After we finished up at the silk reeling factory, we boarded the bus to come back to Shanghai. We were stuck in rush hour traffic and it took us almost 2 ½ hours to get back to our hotel.

Upon arriving at the hotel we went to dinner at the local McDonalds because we were craving American food. It was delicious, and cheap! I had a McChicken sandwich and fries, minus the chicken! We walked back to the hotel to prepare for our first “night out on the town!”

We met up with some of the guys in our group and took a taxi back to the French Concession, where there are many upscale restaurants and dance clubs. We visited a German restaurant first. The music was alright, but it was very smoky and gave me a bad headache. I kept having to walk out of the restaurant to get some fresh air. After experiencing the atmosphere for a while we hopped over to the next place. This was more of a dance club. There were older businessmen with younger Chinese women. There were two women and a band singing American hits. We quickly took off our jackets and showed those Chinese people how to dance! In China it is customary for women to dance with women, and men to dance with men. We danced to songs like “Just Dance (Lady GaGa), I’ve got a feeling (Black Eyed Peas), as well as old hits such as “Walking on Sunshine”. It was a blast. The Chinese people were cracking up at us American girls and boys dancing and jumping up and down to the music. We even were able to drag some Chinese men and women to the dance floor and got them to jump around and put their hands in the air! It was such a fun time. We could dance crazy, and literally be known as the “crazy Americans!” While we were there we met a few other Americans from Virginia, Chicago, and Boston that were there on business. We agreed we would need to come back with our professors tomorrow night and show them a good time!

After another taxi ride back to the hotel, we are finally getting in bed. Today has been an exciting day filled with many adventures and memories. We are finally starting to get adjusted to being the “crazy foreigners”. It is now normal to us to have the Chinese people ask to take a picture with us, or take a picture of us without asking. We find it funny. I feel like a celebrity!

We have another busy day tomorrow. I am looking forward to sharing tomorrow’s adventures as well!