Today was a warm and sunny Sunday in Suzhou and we did some exploring along Shan Tang Jie, an ancient walking street in the northwest of the Suzhou old town. Everywhere you turn on Shan Tang Jie, there are interesting things to see ranging from unidentifiable street food, a five foot wide tailor shop, to vendors sound asleep at their tables. There are also many lovely canal scenes like those shown above.
We held the kids off from lunch by stopping at the bread and bun vendor. You can see Kathleen buying a bag full of carbs for less than a dollar. We finally found a restaurant we were all willing to try. You can see Marco sampling a bit of a mystery meat ball.
For eating their share of Chinese food, each kid earned the privlege of a treat from the sticky, sugar, sweet vendor. This guy has a hot vat full of liquified brown sugar that he attaches decoratively to a stick. It looked awful, and it made a mess but also made the kids quite happy.
Next we wandered into a shop selling live Suzhou oysters. You buy one and then crack open to havest the pearls. Our $4 creature had over a dozen small pearls inside. It was fascinating.
This coming week we have two days off from work and Kathleen has planned a trip to Guilin and Yangshou, a city and town in southeast China in an area known for its picturesque landscape and scenic river. My impression is that many of the National Geographic pictures of China are taken in this region with the steep, fijord-like hills popping out of the watery landscape. It is a two hour plane ride from Shanghai and Kathleen has set us up in some rustic Chinese lodging. Look for a blog posting from Yangshou by this time next week.
We held the kids off from lunch by stopping at the bread and bun vendor. You can see Kathleen buying a bag full of carbs for less than a dollar. We finally found a restaurant we were all willing to try. You can see Marco sampling a bit of a mystery meat ball.
For eating their share of Chinese food, each kid earned the privlege of a treat from the sticky, sugar, sweet vendor. This guy has a hot vat full of liquified brown sugar that he attaches decoratively to a stick. It looked awful, and it made a mess but also made the kids quite happy.
Next we wandered into a shop selling live Suzhou oysters. You buy one and then crack open to havest the pearls. Our $4 creature had over a dozen small pearls inside. It was fascinating.
This coming week we have two days off from work and Kathleen has planned a trip to Guilin and Yangshou, a city and town in southeast China in an area known for its picturesque landscape and scenic river. My impression is that many of the National Geographic pictures of China are taken in this region with the steep, fijord-like hills popping out of the watery landscape. It is a two hour plane ride from Shanghai and Kathleen has set us up in some rustic Chinese lodging. Look for a blog posting from Yangshou by this time next week.
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