and silk & embroidery expertise. Our first activity was to take a boat trip on the Grand Canal (shades of Venice perhaps?) It was very much quieter by comparison to Guilin and the other places!
Our party commandeered two of these boats and as you can see, we were being kept an eye on by Faye as well as photographed by our new friends. The tour took us under bridges (of course) where we saw artwork such as this:
The silk factory was most interesting, starting with the silk worms.....
but it seemed rather cruel to boil these living creatures (cocoons) in order to extract the fine silk
That did not stop Carol from testing her strength on this quilt (and it is strong):
Suzhou boasts the 'Humble administrator's Garden' and while nice and interesting it was no comparison to the gardens we saw in Shanghai two days later. Nevertheless, it gave us another lovely insight into Chinese history and their gardens. As we entered these gardens, this delightful scene welcomed us:
And just a couple of shots in the garden itself with Carol carefully negotiating the 'little' bridge:
Once again, the Chinese know how to make good use of the natural views to have a hanging picture on the wall:
Next was the city of Hangzhou and we very much enjoyed this lovely place. We arrived late in the afternoon and immediately set out to explore a little of the town and enjoyed seeing these young people doing what young people do so well, throwing baskets:
When you look at the next pic, you will realise how much western influence (gourmet wise) has crept into China - McDonalds & KFC on opposite corners!):
The next bit of sculpture is quite a contrast:
The evening views were also spectacular and the place was well and truly alive:
And just have a look at the next shot:
We mentioned that embroidery is a special skill in this area. We were not disappointed and as we saw the work being performed realised how many hours of patient work goes into this craft
to produce pictures like these with exceptionally fine work:
On the Sunday we visited the Six Harmonies Pagoda,
so named because of the six codes of Buddhism and I climbed to the top (of course another challenge).
And the view from the top looking down to where some of our party were discussing the insanity of people like me who walk up there for fun:
A change of pace saw us on a short cruise on West Lake:
It was lovely and peaceful and a good interlude before embarking on the next item on the itinerary:
One can't complain about not seeing enough. The day as always was full and interesting and included a visit to the Temple of Inspired Seclusion. It was built originally in 326AD and because of war and natural disasters has been rebuilt 16 times!!!We were interested to learn that this incredible site was somehow was spared during the Cultural Revolution. The priests at the time apparently protected the images by placing photos of Chairman Mao over them. Smart thinking!
Today, it is once again a hive of activity with many Chinese folk coming to worship and pray in the temple. How times have changed since the restrictions on practising religion and it was good to see a desire by people to connect with their spirituality.
Our final activity was a visit to a tea plantation and a taste of different teas - a little like wine tasting in wineries though rather different.
As you see from the above, IT WAS A VERY FULL DAY but most enjoyable! The final evening was back among the people at a street market:
2 comments:
that part of China looks very interesting but micky mouse and daffy duck are kinda scary, well they freak me out anyway
beautiful pictures, once again! I remember when amy decided to collect silk worms. unfortunately the silk making never came to fruition.
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