SUZHOU

From Hangshou we took a bus to Suzhou which is on China's Grand Canal. Like the other bus rides we've taken, all of the area between the cities is comprised of small individual farms. The pictures aren't great since they were taken from a moving bus on the highway but you can get an idea of what they are like. You may notice that most of the homes here are much nicer and bigger than the ones between Wuhan and Yichang. Our local guide, Kathy, said the farmers around Hangshou are "rich". They grow mostly nursery stock, which seems sad in a country that has so little arable land. As we got closer to Suzhou there was more rice, corn, sugar cane, and vegetables. (BTW, the silver balls on the top of the house in the left of the first picture is a TV antenna.)

BUS PHOTOS HERE

In Suzhou we visited the Garden of the Fishing Net Master (which was only named after him, not owned by him!) Some of the things I enjoyed most about these homes and gardens were the ways they use natural stones as art. They had small and large versions of 'scholar's stones' and they mounted marble slabs with natural images similar to Chinese paintings in frames on the wall and on desks. Here was also another art gallery where we were encouraged to buy things!

GARDEN PHOTOS HERE

Later we took an unexpected ride on a small boat along a portion of the canal. In many places the canal used to serve as a main thoroughfare for transportation of goods and people. If you watch the Chinese film "Together" you can see examples of this. Vendors of various sorts used to bring their goods (fish, vegetables, etc.) to the homes along the canal and the tenants would come down the back steps to the boat and purchase what they wanted (sort of like the ice-cream man in my day!) As you can see, we passed by many of the old 'back doors' and I was fascinated by them. Once again, a look into the daily lives of the locals. Of course, as always, this ride was also an opportunity for hawkers to try and sell their wares. One of the boatmen came back into the cabin during the trip to offer us postcards, playing cards, whistles, and an odd assortment of other things.

CANAL PHOTOS HERE

In Suzhou we visited the most interesting factory of all - a silk factory. Our guide, Yvonne, worked raising silk worms as a child with her family so she knew all about the process. Here are the bullet points:

• The silkworm (caterpillar) makes it's cocoon out of one single silk thread. There are wild and domestic varieties. The wild ones only produce small cocoons (a thread of 200 meters) but the domestic ones make threads up to 1500 meters.
• The cocoons are gathered and baked to kill the caterpillar inside. The cocoon becomes rather hard.
• The cocoons are soaked in hot water to dissolve the gelatin holding the cocoon together.
• They use a little broom-like tool to stir the cocoon around an then the end of the thread eventually attaches to the broom.
• Six to twelve threads are combined in one 'skein' and wound onto a reel. The cocoons float in water below the reel and when one runs out another is added and attached just by touching the end of the thread to those already winding.
  

They are working to try to fully automate this process but it doesn't seem to be especially successful yet. Sometimes two caterpillars will form one cocoon (a double) together. These are the ones used to make the silk comforters. The process for this is totally different. The cocoons are soaked, cut open, and stretched over a succession of frames. After drying on the largest ones, they are then stretched and stacked together to make many layers. This stack is then use as filling for a comforter. They refer to it as a 'quilt' but it isn't actually quilted. The nature of the silk allows the layers to adhere and stay put without any other process needed to hold it. I purchased one of these comforters an have it on my bed now. It has a wonderful feel to it. It is light weight yet 'drapes' over your body in a very sensual and comforting way.

SILK FACTORY PHOTOS HERE

After the silk factory we went to a village called Tongli, referred to as the Venice of China as it is situated on a number of small canals. It was an interesting little place and you can see how it was very cute and interesting before it was promoted as a tourist attraction. There are still lots of locals there living their lives and selling their wares (like the triangular shaped red water chestnuts) on the streets.

TONGLI PHOTOS HERE

Suzhou was one other place we had a chance to get out for an evening walk.

SUZHOU PHOTOS HERE