~Su Zhou(苏州) 26/7~27/7~

26th July 2007
Today we had KFC for brunch,the KFC there is as good as Malaysia's,got spicy one also..Good good..We took the train from Shanghai to Su Zhou and reached there at about 1.15pm..Checked into a place called Motel 168..Ya,you guessed it,the price is 168per night...168yuan=about RM 84.Stayed there for our days at Su Zhou.The difficult part of these days in Su Zhou is the toilet of this motel..It has a semi-transparent glass at the shower corner,facing the room..So when one bathes,the person in the room could peep..Scary huh?Therefore...my friend have to go stroll around the shopping street nearby for at least half an hour everynight while I bathe before he could come back..I thank him for comprimising with me,for after our trips everyday,we were both tired out but he still cannot go back to the room for another hour or so...Sorry ya..The first day we got to Su Zhou,we were both tired out so we only strolled around the streets nearby the motel,I did some shopping and got some books for SS and TY.Nothing much today,a day to rest...

27th July 2007

Breakfast was 鲜肉汤包and鲜肉小龙包(pork dumpling)with豆奶(soy bean milk)and ginger soup..Really nice oo..(saliva dripping?)The first stop of the day was拙政园(the Humble Adminstrator's Garden),a World Cultural Heritage inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1997..It's the largest garden of the four most famous gardens in China.The place is pretty huge so we tagged along a guide before touring the place ourselves.However,we learnt that the garden is in fact,not huge...It used a concept called 借景,a way to make the garden look bigger by using fake walls,fences,building bridges in the form of a wave etc..





见山楼(The Mountain-in-View Tower)..The windows were made by sea shells...

The garden was built in a way that it could see the tower which was built very very far away...

We then went for a short visit to the 苏州民俗博物馆(Su Zhou Cultural Museum)before heading狮子林(The Lion Forest Garden)which is adjacent to the Humble Adminstrator's Garden,is also known as the Kingdom of Rockeries (假山王国）.This places was inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 2000.

After lunch,we headed to 留园(The Lingering Garden)

And then a place call 定园(Su Zhou Calm Garden)..定园was not our actual plan but when we got off the bus,a person introed us to this place.I would say I felt cheated at first but in the end I didn't mind,定园 has it's own attraction.The Guide who showed us around, 王力was a very nice chap,joking with us along the way..Our age was not much different yet people worked hard to earn a living..I suddenly felt really blessed.Here,they gave us a free boat ride and a chance to try the local tea.Pretty nice and.....calm place..After that we made a short visit to the silk factory nearby but went out empty handed=P Dinner was the local famous dish 荷叶叫化鸡(Begger's chicken) and a vege(空心菜)..Tired out...

Next up..Zhou Zhuang..