Day 12: Suzhou [China no. 14]
[Note: Read a more chronological account of Day 12 on calpolymbatrip.com]
The boat trip from Hangzhou to Suzhou was quite an experience but left me rather disoriented. We docked in Suzhou at 6:30am and took a bus to our hotel. Arriving early in the morning, especially after several days of little sleep, left me wondering what time it was despite repeated glances at a clock. I took the first real nap of the trip that morning, and woke up a few hours later to set out with our group again.
That afternoon we toured one of the many extravagant gardens within the city of Suzhou. The one we visited was quite large and very well maintained. One of the more interesting things I saw were countless man-made cave/rock structures throughout the garden. Imagine a bunch of rocks cemented together in a semi-organic manner to create a structure containing both internal tunnels and rooms as well as external stairways on the outside to the top. Each one I explored was unique, some stretching down to a stream, yet all seemed to serve dual purposes as janitorial storage areas — almost all had brooms, mops and other equipment stashed inside.
Similar to our experience in previous cities, we made an effort to visit the “old” part of Suzhou. In comparison to our other, more history-centered visits, Old Suzhou was a bit of a letdown. It was far more touristy than other areas we had seen, and eerily empty. …Until you veer off the main stretch a block or two. The areas just beyond the tourist spot were bustling with locals and sporting a mix of construction chaos and buildings in decay.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
TAGS: This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 at 11:58 am and is filed under CalPoly MBA, China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.