Day 8 - Wuxi to SuzhouJul 4, 2008
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After a very disappointing breakfast, Rachel met with us to take us to Tai Hu Lake, the Land of Fish and Rice, and to the fresh water pearl factory. There, at the pearl factory, we were shown the method used to cultivate fresh water pearls there at Tai Hu Lake. The pearls were gorgeous and we spent quite a bit of time shopping in the store immediately afterwards. I haggled down to a great price for a pair of champagne pink freshwater pearl earrings, ring and a cultured pearl necklace.
Collin picked up the nickname "Purpur" from here. When we were listening to the explanation of cultured pearls, we were trying to understand what she meant when she would say "purpur." It's actually purple, and we had a little chuckle about that. Collin told his friends and he picked up a new nickname. That in turn has Collin wearing purple on occasion--which is a big deal.
We bid Rachel goodbye and drove toTai Hu Lake were we spend some time lingering and walking the shore and getting some refreshments. The lake was very pretty, but we had no idea how big it really was until we started our trip down to Suzhou and got a better sense of its enormity.
We arrived in Suzhou for a delicious lunch at a place alongside the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal was built to allow the Emperor to travel from his palace in Beijing to (I think) Hangzhou. It's really impressive--yet again--to see what was built so many thousands of years ago. At the restaurant, we were met up with Lei-Lei who became our local guide for Suzhou. While she was more serious in nature, Jeff got her to crack up quite a bid and called him a "funny face" or "funny man."
After lunch, we went to the Panmen Gate and the Lingering Gardens. The Panmen Gate is the only land and water gate (fortress) in China. Later we went for a ride on the Grand Canal on small boats to see a slice of life along the water way. The water itself is somewhat polluted, yet there were people swimming in the water. The area, however around the canals is really quite pretty.
We were dropped off at the Su-Yuan Hotel where we could freshen up before dinner. The hotel was beautiful. In the middle of the hotel, there was a fish pond with a walking bridge across the center. All rooms looked down into the center of the hotel to see this pond and garden.
As usual, our dinner was fantastic and we rolled back to our rooms. The boys went out with Graham to walk around after dinner to get a feel for the local culture. The pace here, is slower than Beijing, and I was enjoying it.
