It has been a week since I've returned from China. It was the first of the many visits I intend to make to the homeland of my ancestors. I arrived at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai and was waiting for my baggage at the conveyor belt. I thought the belt had gone a complete round but my baggage was nowhere to be seen. With a sense of apprehension, I surveyed each and every piece of suitcase by walking in a counter direction to that of the moving belt. When I had ascertained that my baggage was not there, I sighed at the depressing start of the journey. I hadn't even stepped out of the airport and I had met with my first hiccup. Fortunately, I did not have any valuables in that suitcase. I lodged a report at the service counter and the staff was approachable and assuring. Indeed, they managed to deliver my baggage to my hotel in Suzhou on the second night, which I was thankful for.
Suzhou was the first leg of the trip. I gathered some positivity and enthusiasm and made my way to take the Shanghai maglev train. When I was queuing to buy my ticket, I witnessed my first ugly Chinese behaviour. The guy in front of me questioned the staff why he was charged 50RMB instead of 40RMB, as there was 20% off for travellers who produced a boarding pass. He did not produce it the first time round, so he fished it out and angrily told the staff "Why would I be at the airport without a boarding pass?" meaning that he expected the staff to assume he had a boarding pass even without flashing it.
Some common ugly behaviour that reoccurred throughout the trip were: people talking in a demanding tone, cutting queues blatantly, and littering. A mother carrying a young son in her arms could barge in front of me at the ticket gantry as if she had the prerogative, setting a shameful example to the future generation. The people who exhibited those disgusting behaviour spanned across different age groups from young couples to wrinkled senior citizens. I thought the immensely large population in China is both a bane and a boon. A large population contributes many frustrations the citizens face in their daily lives so much so that they have lost the civic-mindedness in the process of trying to just move along. The government and the education system are trying to instill desirable values in the people, but since it is utterly difficult to manage such a gargantuan population, the only thing you can do is to just adapt and look at things with a forgiving mind or else you'll definitely find yourself complaining almost non-stop during your time in China. By adapting, I mean to accept the phenomena as they are, and not to jump onto the bandwagon of ugliness.
I digressed. After purchasing the tickets, I hopped onto the maglev train, currently the fastest commercially operational train in the world. It hit a top-speed of 430km/hr, shown on an indicator which I was too slow to snap a picture of. As the route only covers around 30km, the speed starts to drop immediately after the the maximum is reached. I wish they would extend the line. Switched to the metro after reaching Longyang Road station and took the high-speed railway train at Shanghai Train Station bound for Suzhou Station. The train stations in China are enormous. As I arrived by line 1 of the metro, I ended up at the South Square, and the ticket office is at a separate building away from the station. I had booked my ticket online but had to queue for collection. The queues were pretty long, and due to the delays earlier on, I was going to miss my train. At first I tried my luck and attempted to collect my ticket from a window that handled only refunds since only a few people were in line, but the staff refused to entertain me. I went to a proper queue to collect, but I wasn't sharp enough to calculate that the staff was going on a break before I could reach her. In the end I made a futile attempt in that queue and moved on a new one. I thought I could collect and change my train slot at the same window, but nope, I had to queue a 4th time in another window to have my slot changed. See how everything is so compartmentalised? Of course, the people who charged all the way to the front shouting for their demands to be satisfied, resulted in more inconvenience. However, the staff were strict and didn't accede to their requests unless they joined the queue.
I was finally in Suzhou, slightly over an hour later than my stipulated arrival time. I had to give up on a place which sells Suzhou's traditional snacks as it had closed. A new metro line just opened in April, and my hotel is a 5 minute walk from the nearest metro station on the new line. I took less than half an hour to reach my hotel from Suzhou Railway Station and was pleased. Apart from the location, I was also satisfied with the spacious, clean, and modern-looking room. In fact, the entire hotel has some quirky designs.
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| Lobby and reception, Hotel Soul Suzhou |
After a brief rest, I was out for dinner, and tried one of the famous noodles in Suzhou at an old establishment. I really liked the springiness of the noodles and the flavourful pork that had a harmonious composition of fats and meat. I thought the broth would be the highlight but to my dismay, it was overly greasy and lacked essence - nothing to proclaim.
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| Men Rou Mian, Zhu Hong Xing |
After dinner I got a mango shake topped with chunks of mango flesh from a chain that I heard was hot in China. It was alright - mangoes were not that sweet, maybe because it wasn't the right season.
From my research, Pingjiang Road is a place where you can get a glimpse of how Suzhou looked like in the olden days. I was going to Tongli Ancient Town 2 days later, in the day, so I thought I'd see Pingjiang Road at night for the contrast. Pingjiang Road is basically a row of shops by a canal, selling street food, memorabilia, and other knickknacks. Residences line the other side of the canal. The atmosphere was laid-back and a sense of modernity was injected into those old houses. It was interesting to see people inside swiping their latest Galaxy Tab, or Starbucks being an occupant, with the facade and signboard being wooden. The first night in Suzhou was spent traipsing around the city while having specific destinations but no specific motives.
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| Houses by the canal at Pingjiang Road |
On the second day, I visited Tiger Hill, Lingering Garden, Humble Administrator's Garden, and the Suzhou Museum. Su Dongpo, a famous poet from the Song dynasty, once remarked that it is a shame for one not to visit Tiger Hill when in Suzhou, so of course I decided to see for myself what is so impressive that made the great poet bestow such a high praise. At the highest point of the hill stands a tilted pagoda while surrounding it are lush greenery, some retreats, and historical features like the Sword Pool, where valuable swords were said to be buried beneath. The leaning pagoda probably has a richer history than the leaning tower of Pisa but most people flock to the latter. I wanted to showcase and share more of China's beauty with people around but it seems that many are not that keen of or inclined towards China.
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| Tiger Hill, with the Yunyan Pagoda in the background. Tilt is clearly visible from this angle. |
Lingering Garden is not spectacular to me; the Humble Administrator's Garden is several notches above it. For one, the latter is the largest of all the classical gardens in Suzhou. But the common trait is that the gardens are indeed manicured and well maintained, with exquisite pavilions erected around, connected by stone or wooden bridges over water. Rockeries can also be found at parts of the gardens. Cleaners made their rounds to pick up rubbish, or else it would not have been a sight to behold.
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| Lingering Garden |
There were touters selling tickets to the Humble Admin's Garden at around 40% the official ticket price. I was wondering how they got those tickets and was thinking about their legitimacy but I couldn't find any scam related recounts online. I bought the ticket from the official ticket office nevertheless, as a safety precaution. The pristine gardens probably acted as sanctuaries for people of the past to unwind or to immerse in deep thoughts. If there weren't people around, the surroundings would have been serene and tranquil, creating the optimal zen conditions.
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| Humble Administrator's Garden |
I love the design of Suzhou museum. Of course it is good, coming from renowned architect I.M. Pei, the master behind other stunning structures such as the Louvre Museum, and the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong. The curators take special care of the scrolls, keeping them at a set temperature and humidity. The museum is well-organised and even houses a little cafe. I had dinner at "Wu Men Ren Jia", known for serving Suzhou cuisine.
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| Suzhou Museum |
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| Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish. Love the presentation. |
On my last day in Suzhou, I paid a visit to Tongli Ancient Town. Once again, the opening of the new metro line 4 made it convenient. Took metro to Tongli station, and bought a pass at the station itself for 88RMB, which included bus rides to and from the town, and the entrance ticket. Some might say that Tongli is industralised. I haven't been to other ancient towns so I cannot make comparisons on the degree of industrialisation, but I still find Tongli quaint and well-preserved. Restaurants line both sides of the canals and there are shopping streets with an array of shops, but you have to venture into those ancient gardens or quarters which are now more or less like museums. There are panels describing the function of each room so one can understand the way of life of the people back then. Once again, the gardens are immaculate. As it was a weekday and Tongli is pretty large, I found myself stumbling into areas that were spared the throngs of crowd. I ate a sausage coated with dry chili, and smelly tofu at a random stall. They were a tad expensive, but they were awesome! The weather was around 20 degree celsius that day and eating those kind of piping hot street food against an archaic backdrop which invoked a lax feeling, is definitely one of life's simple pleasures.
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| Tongli Ancient Town |
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