First Day in Suzhou

Thursday, May 23 2008
Suzhou is a city located in the southern part of the Yangtze Delta, known for its numerous lakes and waterways.The Grand Canal (Beijing-Hangzhou, 1800 km. long) passes through the city from the north to the south. It is called the, " Oriental Venice" because water covers 46% of its territory. Suzhou has a population of about 6 million people, this is about 1/10th of Shanghai. The city itself ( 2 million people) has kept the same layout since 515BC, forming a double-lined chessboard; streets and canals are parallel, and dark roofs with tiles and bridges are over water.

We visited three gardens today; each one with a different flair and feel. The first one is called: Garden of the Master of the Nets (Wangshi Yuan). It was built during the Song dynasty, but its present form and name date back to the 18th century, when scholar Song Zongyan bought the land. This is a small garden, elegant with carefully divided views. Many bridges and zig-zag paths complete this extremely well balanced garden. One garden room called "Hall of Eternal Spring" has been reproduced at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY. A note: Has been inscribed on the World Heritage List by the UNESCO in 1997.

The second garden is The Lingering Garden, built also during the Ming Dynasty, this garden is well known for its classical round doorways (Moon gates). Along the way many geometrical doorways are framing views of plants, rocks, water and beyond. The beautiful limestone rocks have been transported from Lake Tai. Each view looks like a painting, white painted walls, light and dark, few rocks surrounded by elegant plants. The famous Jade Cloud caped Peak is imposing with 6- meter frame and weighing 6 tons..very impressing. This garden is also registered on the World Heritage list by Unesco in 1997.

The third garden is The Humble Administrator's Garden, (Zhuozheng Yuan) . This is a classical Ming garden, complete with a pool of water surrounding islands and beautiful bridges. There is one special island, Xiangzhou; it is said to look like a moored boat. In the small enclosed Loquat garden, a series of pebble pictures can be seen. This garden definitely felt like a park, or the countryside, it is vast, with different terrains and an abundance of plants. It is really like "standing along between Heaven and Earth cymbidium goeingii is exposed to refreshing breeze." like the famous Tang poet Li Bai once wrote. Also inscribed in the World Heritage list by the Unesco in 1997.