CHINA 2010 SATURDAY 25th SEPTEMBER

A dull start to the day but it cannot be cold as more people than yesterday and walking and riding without jackets. We set out to explore the area around ‘The Grand Canal’ to the south of Dao Qian Street on which our hotel stands. We arrived at the wide canal where large tourist boats operate and part of the old city wall is still standing just as a group of local people got off their boat. At this point there is a large bridge over the canal and as the group began to fill it I couldn’t help but think of my embroidered picture at home of ‘The Morning Scene’ which features among other things a bridge full of people, so I just had to get my camera out.
Where we wanted to go looked so easy on the map but sometimes we found we couldn’t walk by the water and a couple of times found ourselves in housing complexes with only one way in and out. I complained it was like getting lost in Crete only I didn’t mind so much there as we were in a car, not on foot! In one of the complexes we watched older generation women practising at being models, receiving instructions from 3 ladies wearing silver ballroom shoes whilst two young girls were giving instructions through their microphones. A group of men playing mah-jong under a small pavilion showed no interest in what was going on.
We had a brief spell of sunshine on our way to visit ‘Canglang Pavilion’ (translated as ‘Surging Wave Pavilion’) where again there were very few tourists. On a much smaller scale than those sites we visited yesterday we enjoyed our visit here. The water was on the outside of the Pavilion with just a small fish pond inside. Again a colourful display had been arranged on a pebbled forecourt by the entrance and in front of another ‘mini mountain’. On this ‘mountain ridge’ I saw another small well with a narrow opening on top of the low wall around it and wondered why the well had been placed up here. (We have seen these wells in many places especially by the canals yesterday.) We visited several halls including one where we had to pass 4 old men sitting on the high wooden sill where in Temples ladies use their right foot first and men their left, to step over. Reading the information board written in Chinese and English we discovered this hall was where all the scholars met and we began to wonder if the old men were retired teachers. We spotted a group of ‘Pomelo’ trees overhanging a path – that would hurt if one fell on your head, and walking along the corridor by the lake I spotted a tiny green fruit in the shape of a green fig resting on a rock partly covered by a large trailing plant with more fruits on its thin branches. It began to rain as we were ready to leave and our umbrellas were back in the hotel so we waited a short time listening to the rain falling on the arrowhead bamboo and ginkgo trees.
Across the road was a small garden leading to the ‘Temple to Confucius’ where a sculptured scene showed Confucius with other people sat around him, and further along a colourful display to celebrate the 1st of October. Again we weren’t all that bothered about visiting the Temple but staff stood by the entrance encouraged us to come inside, especially as it was free. So just to please them we stepped over the sill and found ourselves in a very calming atmosphere. Behind an old ornate wall, and down a pathway lined with pots of bonsai trees, some standing on the backs of large stone turtles, was a statue of Confucius. Beyond that was the Temple with a large painting of the man himself, part of which was also inlaid with mother of pearl. In the corridors around the garden the walls had been filled with many stone plaques written by him. There were other buildings that we were unable to visit due to renovations taking place and we guess that once these have been finished the entrance fee will be re-introduced.
Our final destination was ‘Guhua Park’ on a corner of the Grand Canal where the first thing we saw were 4 kites in the sky. We walked along part of the city wall getting a view of Suzhou’s skyline and briefly watching a group of young men jumping on and over a narrow wall by the ‘gangway type slope’ leading down to ground level where some of the smaller trees were beginning to change into their autumn colours whilst others were producing new growth – very confusing. It began to rain again and so we headed for home eventually taking a taxi when one would stop for us.
Again we had dinner in the restaurant watching the traffic and public walk by. We watched in amazement as an old man with his back to us began to ‘head butt’ one of the gingko trees that line the road. His wife appeared and began to search the ground and then we realised he was shaking the tree. It was only next morning we saw the trees bore a small round orange fruit.