Day 7: Suzhou and Silk

Weather- yucky hot!
Traffic- Still nuts!

Suzhou is located one hour away from Shanghai along the Grand Canal. The city is famous or it's classical gardens, cobbled alleyways, canals and silk! It actually looks more like a fusion of an old Chinese city and European one. Although the population is approx. 6 million (around Torontos pop.) Suzhou was still small in comparison to Beijing and Shanghai.

After a group lunch (mmmm sweet and sour pork, beer and sprite...the beer and sprite combo was the theme for all our meals) we went to the Silk Factory. Wow- very interesting. The factory served as a small modern factory as well as kind of a museum for the history of silk production. We followed the production line from the beginning where the silk worms were still growing to the end where we actually got to try our hand at stretching the finished material into a duvet. The old ladies who were actually making the duvets had a good chuckle at our expense because it looked a lot easier then it was. Those were some tough ladies! Another highlight of the factory were the toilets. Let's just say they flushed, they were clean, they were not squatters and we were happy!

Next we took a boat ride on the canal. From a far it looked very beautiful but up close the houses were all run down and dirty. I imagine that maybe in 15 to 20 years or so all the old people who are living in the houses will have passed away and the younger generation will move in and let the area reach it's potential. It could be amazing!

At night we went to the Garden of the Master of Nets. As I mentioned Suzhou is famous for gardens and this is one of the best! The Garden was laid out in the 12th century, abandoned, then restored in the 18th century as a residence for a retired government official turned fisherman. Every night started at 7pm there are different traditional Chinese performances such as skirts, instruments and singing. The atmosphere was perfect and it was something I probably wouldn't have seen had I not been on the tour. Well done Intrepid!

What's more, outside the Garden on Bar Street (local bars as the name suggests but also lots of shops) we found what I like to call DVD Heaven! Also, Vivian bought a dress and it really put things in perspective. She stood in the shop wearing the dress for over 35 mins bargaining over maybe what ended up as a $8 discount on a $35 dress. Ok, so that is a pretty big discount on a $35 dress but after the purchase Vivian was second guessing her purchase for the reason that it was too much money to spend on clothes. Us ladies hanging out with her that night got a little reality check. There we were spending $30 in DVD Heaven on luxury items and our tour leader was stressing over a $23 article of clothing that she said she needed.

Great day all in all!