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INDIVIDUAL VOYAGE THROUGH CHINA DURING 7 WEEKS PEKING XIAN CHENGDU CHONGQING YANGTZE RIVER MOUNTS HUANGSHAN HANGZHOU SUZHOU SHANGHAI PEKING
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
SUZHOU
The Gardens
15, 16, 17, 18 October 1990
www.flickr.com/photos/jeanette
At 10 AM we arrive in Suzhou, 80 km. West of Shanghai. The hotels, which suit with our budget, don’t have free double rooms. Giving our search up we decide to stay at Friendship Hotel. It costs 20 $ per night. It’s one of the favorite places of notables and businessmen. Ladies dressed in the traditional Chinese long tunic made of pure silk lounge there. For my part any complex in spite of our look after a 29 days voyage, sometimes in primitive conditions. A smiling groom takes us to a lovely room with a “delicious” bathroom we need more than ever!
Suzhou was the capital of king Wu in 518 B.C. Since the sinking if the Grand Canal (603) it became an important shopping center where the weaving of silk (it was born here) occupies, and still now, the first place in the country. Its microclimate, its rich cultural traditions and its extraordinary gardens designed during Qing dynasty (1644 – 1911) made of it a first class vacation resort. I like Suzhou from my first steps in the shade of the enormous plane trees on its wide avenues. Firstly we visit the smallest garden named Master of the Nets (fisherman). It’s a charming environment typically Chinese. A pond with nenuphars, rocks in recreated landscapes, here and there kiosks and pavilions in original styles. We wander in these queer surroundings until nightfall.
“Plain Man’s Politics Garden”! At the entrance I read an ancient quotation, which inspired its creator: “To cultivate one’s garden to meet one’s daily needs, that’s what is known as the politics of the plain man”. The day is to short to discover the immense park magnificently imagined we have the opportunity to see in a beautiful autumnal ornament. Artificial hills, lakes, small islands, zigzag bridges, palates, temples, bonsai, bamboos, chrysanthemums in blossom…a spectacle!
Here more than elsewhere this mysterious China intrigues me: the symbolic names of their gardens, enigmatic inscriptions engraved in the stones, its specific architecture, the reaction of the visitors, which reflects the passionate relations between the Chinese and these vestiges, witness of their past.
The third day starts with the purchase of train tickets for Shanghai. At the booking office some Mister Wu Yong Ming wants to help us. We accept with pleasure. Getting the tickets we hear he is a young professor in electronics at the University of Shanghai and vice-president of an institute. He proposes to go with us to Lin Garden - 7km. away, a space of 3ha. May be the Providence sent us this improvised guide to clear up some enigmas of the Chinese garden’s elements absolutely incomprehensible to us. Indeed, walking in a milieu like yesterday Mr. Wu tell us that the gardens of Suzhou built for mandarins, politicians, literati…were designed by architects, painters and poets. They represent the lyricism and romanticism, which incite meditation.
Here are some of his comments.
The kiosk “Breeze and the Moon” mirrored in a pond: It reminds the rendez vous’ of yore and appears to be the ideal place to contemplate the reflex of the moon in the water!
A kiosk with four round doors surrounded with bamboos, Lotus Flowers and willows is called “Refuge in the Bamboos shade. Inside a calligraphic quotation: “We benefit the freshness of the breeze and the moonlight”
An other one called “The Pavilion where we stop to listen the rain”! Its name springs from an ancient poetry more than 1200 years ago, which express the melancholy sound of he droplets falling on the dried lotus leaves.
Our friend would still have many to say but he must go to a conference. He will stay engraved in our memory because his greatness of soul, dignity and modesty.
At sun setting we wander along the channels, which make the fame of Suzhou too. Moreover, Marco Polo baptized Suzhou “Venice of the East”.
Lin Garden
15, 16, 17, 18 October 1990
www.flickr.com/photos/jeanette
At 10 AM we arrive in Suzhou, 80 km. West of Shanghai. The hotels, which suit with our budget, don’t have free double rooms. Giving our search up we decide to stay at Friendship Hotel. It costs 20 $ per night. It’s one of the favorite places of notables and businessmen. Ladies dressed in the traditional Chinese long tunic made of pure silk lounge there. For my part any complex in spite of our look after a 29 days voyage, sometimes in primitive conditions. A smiling groom takes us to a lovely room with a “delicious” bathroom we need more than ever!
Suzhou was the capital of king Wu in 518 B.C. Since the sinking if the Grand Canal (603) it became an important shopping center where the weaving of silk (it was born here) occupies, and still now, the first place in the country. Its microclimate, its rich cultural traditions and its extraordinary gardens designed during Qing dynasty (1644 – 1911) made of it a first class vacation resort. I like Suzhou from my first steps in the shade of the enormous plane trees on its wide avenues. Firstly we visit the smallest garden named Master of the Nets (fisherman). It’s a charming environment typically Chinese. A pond with nenuphars, rocks in recreated landscapes, here and there kiosks and pavilions in original styles. We wander in these queer surroundings until nightfall.
“Plain Man’s Politics Garden”! At the entrance I read an ancient quotation, which inspired its creator: “To cultivate one’s garden to meet one’s daily needs, that’s what is known as the politics of the plain man”. The day is to short to discover the immense park magnificently imagined we have the opportunity to see in a beautiful autumnal ornament. Artificial hills, lakes, small islands, zigzag bridges, palates, temples, bonsai, bamboos, chrysanthemums in blossom…a spectacle!
Here more than elsewhere this mysterious China intrigues me: the symbolic names of their gardens, enigmatic inscriptions engraved in the stones, its specific architecture, the reaction of the visitors, which reflects the passionate relations between the Chinese and these vestiges, witness of their past.
The third day starts with the purchase of train tickets for Shanghai. At the booking office some Mister Wu Yong Ming wants to help us. We accept with pleasure. Getting the tickets we hear he is a young professor in electronics at the University of Shanghai and vice-president of an institute. He proposes to go with us to Lin Garden - 7km. away, a space of 3ha. May be the Providence sent us this improvised guide to clear up some enigmas of the Chinese garden’s elements absolutely incomprehensible to us. Indeed, walking in a milieu like yesterday Mr. Wu tell us that the gardens of Suzhou built for mandarins, politicians, literati…were designed by architects, painters and poets. They represent the lyricism and romanticism, which incite meditation.
Here are some of his comments.
The kiosk “Breeze and the Moon” mirrored in a pond: It reminds the rendez vous’ of yore and appears to be the ideal place to contemplate the reflex of the moon in the water!
A kiosk with four round doors surrounded with bamboos, Lotus Flowers and willows is called “Refuge in the Bamboos shade. Inside a calligraphic quotation: “We benefit the freshness of the breeze and the moonlight”
An other one called “The Pavilion where we stop to listen the rain”! Its name springs from an ancient poetry more than 1200 years ago, which express the melancholy sound of he droplets falling on the dried lotus leaves.
Our friend would still have many to say but he must go to a conference. He will stay engraved in our memory because his greatness of soul, dignity and modesty.
At sun setting we wander along the channels, which make the fame of Suzhou too. Moreover, Marco Polo baptized Suzhou “Venice of the East”.
Lin Garden
Posted by: jeanette / 1:58 AM 
