Kathleen and friends took a shopping trip to Shanghai which left me with four kids for a long Saturday afternoon. It had been a long time since the kids and I did one of our weekend outings so we embarked on some sightseeing in Suzhou.
Late morning, we all piled into a taxi and went downtown. We took in the #1 and #2 most famous tourist sights in town - The Humble Administrator's Garden and a boat tour of the Suzhou canals.
Suzhou is a city famous for gardens and the Humble Administrator's is the most famous one in town. It is also one of the most highly regarded gardens in China - reportedly on par with the Summer Palace in Beijing. And best of all it has an abundant number of rocks, caves, and moon gates on which the boys could clamber and climb. I was surprised that the gardens did not include many flowers, but rather display ponds, foot bridges, trees, stonework, and rocks. It was very interesting and the kids really enjoyed the exploring.
Next, we took a terrific boat ride that toured along the network of canals for which Suzhou is also famous. Suzhou has been called by westerners the "Venice of the East" and our boat ride seemed very much like what a Venetian gondola ride might be like. Our boat captain paddled through canals and under bridges with low clearance. We saw the homes and workplaces of people dwelling next to the canals. He even sang to us a few Chinese folksongs. The kids returned the gesture by singing him a round of the alphabet song. Now that I think about it, why didn't we sing "Row, row your boat" ?
Next outing we plan to see the #3 top tourist sight which is the silk factory - Suzhou is on the silk road that Marco Polo once traveled and is well known for silk furnishings and embroidery.
No comments:
Post a Comment