A trip to China - Day 8 - A new day, a new adventure, visiting another palace and gardens

The Lingering Garden

These gardens are very tightly put together and are interspersed with buildings that you can go in and look at as distinct from just looking in from the outside.

There are lots of paths that wind around interspersed with rocks which may or may not be sculpted, and equally interspersed with trees, bushes, and small plants.  In the middle is a lake which usually has lotus plants in bloom, but they are not in season.



The gardens were built around a small lake that was filled with fish of all sizes and colours

 



The buildings were also a contrast for those built for the men


     
and those for the women



In the middle of the garden was a significant rock pillar



surrounded by certain areas of the garden that had smaller rock formations


 


At the end of the garden is a large collection of bonsai trees, some of which are quite exquisite.





After this, we are off to the next hotel, via a truck stop.


The truck stop

These are not the same as ours, except it's a service station.  There is a building but it has a few 'fast food' shops selling either meat or dumplings or duck, with a convenience store.

We're here for a happy house stop as it's several hours drive to the hotel.


The Pujing Garden hotel 

Like all the hotels before, from the outside it looks like a million dollars, then you step inside and you get the immediate feeling that it has what I would call old-world opulence that's just a little past its use-by date.

The lifts, from the outside. belied the fact that inside they've seen better days and the management have realised that more elevators were needed to handle six or seven buses arriving at once, so the staff elevator has been included.

The rooms when the hotel was first built would have been the height of luxury.  Now they have a sort of seedy feel about them, but the bathroom looks clean, and it's best to look further than that.

Showers are mouldy in places, doors are broken, and do not have adequate seals, and invariably leak either into the rest of the bathroom or into the main room under the carpet leaving an ugly stain.

Other than that, there's not a lot to complain about.  It is a cheap holiday after all, and the truth is you get what you pay for.


Dinner

We chance our arm in going to the hotel restaurant.  It's probably one of the few places you could trust to eat.

There are those, too, you wouldn't.

This one we were suffering from an extreme lack of understanding, ie no one could understand English, and the waitress looked at us with no comprehension, so it was back to the lady at the front door who could passably speak English to translate.

Steak in that restaurant is labelled 'half-cooked' for medium-rare, 'hardly cooked' for rare and 'completely cooked' for well done.  It comes with a fried egg, tomatoes, and roasted rice on a bed of onions.  There was also a bowl is what appeared to be cream of corn soup that was to die for.
Surprisingly, the food is absolutely delicious.

Four very satisfied customers.

 

A trip to China - Day 8 - A new day, a new adventure, a boat ride on some Chinese canals

Off for a boat ride on the canals

The next activity this morning is a boat ride, and we head through a number of back streets, to a landing where there are a number of boats all vying with each other to get us passengers on boats.

But...

These boats don't have a wharf to tie up to and then put out a stable gangplank.  No.  They just more into a concrete step and you take your life in your hands getting on.  One wrong step and you're in the canal.  And not a very clean one at that.

That's if another boat doesn't come along and bumps you, knocking you off balance.  We managed not to lose anyone in boarding the vessel.
 
This is where we get on the boat



We go along what appears to be downstream towards another larger canal, past tree-lined streets until the canal narrows and we're looking at the backs of houses, which look very dilapidated.



And the canals?  Well, it’s not quite like it is in Venice



Though some parts of the canal look better than others



What doesn't bear thinking about is the electrical wiring which is a nightmarish spider web of cables going off in all directions.  How anyone could troubleshoot problems is beyond me.


   
We pass under a number of bridges, and then, about 30 minutes after leaving, we reach a larger canal and do a 180-degree turn, and head back to a drop off point the will enable us to walk through a typical everyday Chinese market for food and the other items.

This drop off point is much the same as the starting point, a concrete step which is as hazardous as the first.  At least we don't have to compete with other boats for the landing spot.


   
We take a leisurely stroll down this street with small shops on either side, selling all manner of goods



but my interest is in the food and the prices, which at times seem quite expensive for so-called local people, so maybe because the tourists go down this street every day, the prices have been inflated accordingly.





I find it rather disappointing.

We walk to the bridge, go under to the other side crossing the canal and find the coffee shop which is also the meeting place.

So...

When is a coffee shop not a coffee shop, when it takes an eternity to make a cup of coffee, we waited 25 minutes?

We also ordered beef black pepper rice and it took 20 minutes before it arrived, but it was well worth the wait.  Strands of perfectly cooked beef with onion, carrot, and capsicum, with a very peppery and spicy sauce, with a side of boiled rice.

A pizza was ordered too but it did not arrive at all before we left.

After this interlude, we head off to the Lingering Garden.

A trip to China - Day 8 - A new day, a new adventure, visiting a silk factory

The brochure says: Suzhou, which dates back to 514 BC, is sometimes called the ‘Venice of the East’. Today you will visit the famous Lingering Garden, recognised with other classical Suzhou gardens as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

China is renowned for its exquisite silk, so naturally, a visit to the Silk Spinning Factory is in order. Take the opportunity to cruise along the Grand Canal (not included) to view life along China’s ancient waterway.

We are heading downtown to somewhere where we're getting a boat ride, walk through a typical Chinese shopping experience, and coffee at a coffee shop that is doubling as the meeting place.

The problem with that is that if the entire collective trip a deal tourists take this route then the savvy shopkeepers will jack up their prices tenfold because we're tourists with money.  It'll be interesting to see how expensive everything is.

So...

First, we arrive at the Silk Factory, another government-owned establishment with a castiron guarantee of quality and satisfaction.



The look and feel of the doona covers certainly backs up that claim



And the colours and variety is amazing (as is the cost of those exquisite sets)

We get to see the silk cocoon stretched beyond imagination, and see how the silk thread is extracted, then off to the showroom for the sales pitch.

It isn’t a hard sell, and the sheets, doonas, pillows and pillowcases, are reasonably priced, and come with their own suitcase (for free) so you can take them with you, or free shipping, by slow boat, if you prefer not to take the goods with you.

We opt for the second choice, as there’s no room left in our baggage after packing the Chinese Medicine.

A trip to China - Day 7 - To the train, and heading to the next city

A convoluted explanation on the reasons for this memorial came down to it being about the deaths of those involved in the 1923 Erqi strike, though we're not really sure what the strike was about.

So, after a little research, this is what I found:

The current Erqi Tower was built in 1971 and was, historically, the tallest building in the city.  It is a memorial to the Erqi strike and in memory of Lin Xiangqian and other railway workers who went on strike for their rights, which happened on February 7, 1923. 

It has 14 floors and is 63 meters high.  One of the features of this building is the view from the top, accessed by a spiral staircase, or an elevator, when it's working (it was not at the time of our visit).

There seems to be an affinity with the number 27 with this building, in that

- It's the 27th memorial to be built
- to commemorate the 27th workers' strike
- located in the 27th plaza of Zhengzhou City.

We drive to the middle of the city where we once again find traveling in kamikaze traffic more entertaining than the tourist points

                          

When we get to the drop-off spot, it's a 10-minute walk to the center square where the tower is located on one side.  Getting there we had to pass a choke point of blaring music and people hawking goods, each echoing off the opposite wall to the point where it was deafening.  Too much of it would be torture.


 
But, back to the tower...

It has 14 levels, but no one seemed interested in climbing the 14 or 16 levels to get to the top.  The elevator was broken, and after the great wall episode, most of us are heartily sick of stairs.

The centre square was quite large but paved in places with white tiles that oddly reflected the heat rather than absorb it.  In the sun it was very warm.



Around the outside of two-thirds of the square, and crossing the roads, was an elevated walkway, which if you go from the first shops and around to the other end, you finish up, on the ground level, at Starbucks.

This is the Chinese version and once you get past the language barrier, the mixology range of cold fruity drinks are to die for, especially after all that walking.  Mine was a predominantly peach flavour, with some jelly and apricot at the bottom.  I was expecting sliced peaches but I prefer and liked the apricot half.

A drink and fruit together was a surprise.

Then it was the walk back to the meeting point and then into the hotel to use the happy house before rejoining the kamikaze traffic.

We are taken then to the train station for the 2:29 to our next destination, Suzhou, the Venice of the East.

A trip to China - Day 7 - The Erqi Memorial tower, and shopping complex

Erqi Memorial tower

A convoluted explanation on the reasons for this memorial came down to it being about the deaths of those involved in the 1923 Erqi strike, though we're not really sure what the strike was about.
We drive to the middle of the city where we once again find travelling in kamikaze traffic more entertaining than the tourist points

                          

When we get to the drop-off spot, it's a 10-minute walk to the centre square where the tower is located on one side.  Getting there we had to pass a choke point of blaring music and people hawking goods, each echoing off the opposite wall to the point where it was deafening.  Too much of it would be torture.


 
But, back to the tower...

It has 14 levels, but no one seemed interested in climbing the 14 or 16 levels to get to the top.  The elevator was broken, and after the great wall episode, most of us are heartily sick of stairs.

The centre square was quite large but paved in places with white tiles that oddly reflected the heat rather than absorb it.  In the sun it was very warm.



Around the outside of two-thirds of the square, and crossing the roads, was an elevated walkway, which if you go from the first shops and around to the other end, you finish up, on the ground level, at Starbucks.

This is the Chinese version and once you get past the language barrier, the mixology range of cold fruity drinks are to die for, especially after all that walking.  Mine was a predominantly peach flavour, with some jelly and apricot at the bottom.  I was expecting sliced peaches but I prefer and liked the apricot half.

A drink and fruit together was a surprise.

Then it was the walk back to the meeting point and then into the hotel to use the happy house before rejoining the kamakazi traffic.

We are taken then to the train station for the 2:29 to our next destination, Suzhou, the Venice of the East.

A tri[p to China - Day 7 - The Hunan Museum

Day 7 - Hunan museum

The brochure says: This morning visit the Henan or Zhengzhou Museum (dependent on day of the week and closure periods), which are both major museums in China and were created for the collection, protection, study and display of cultural relics in the hinterland of the Central Plain. Then visit Erqi Memorial Tower. Erqi Memorial Tower is the memorial of the Erqi Strike, which occurred on February 7, 1923. The Erqi Memorial Tower has altogether 14 storeys, totalling 63m in height. A winding staircase inside the tower brings you to the top floor, where you can get a bird’s-eye view of the whole city of Zhengzhou.

Peak hour traffic, and the Scooters

A leisurely morning at last with an 8:30 call, but we don't get underway until about 15 minutes later.
Then we got caught up in peak hour traffic, but any time of the day in peak hour traffic in these large cities though this was one of the smaller with a population of only 7 million.

Perhaps the most interesting part of driving on the bus from one place to another is watching the local people driving, which is very kamikaze-like, and then the scooters, of which there literally thousands.

In China, you do not need a licence to drive a scooter, and as they cost less than a car, considerably less in fact, everyone wants one.  But these people who now have their own lane in various parts of the city, don't stop for anything, turn into traffic even when the lights are against them, and worse of all see a gap and slip into it, even when it's a bus bearing down on them.

Scooter drivers in China drive without fear.

But there's an even greater folly these people commit, putting more than two people, even three people, including very young children, even babies, either in front of or behind them hanging on, or sometimes, not.

It is amazing in all the time so far we have not seen an accident, only smashed cars on the side of the road.

The Hunan Museum

Eventually, we arrive at the museum and get off the bus adjacent to a scooter track and despite the efforts of the guide, there's no stopping them from nearly running us over.

We arrive to find the museum has been moved to a different building as the existing, and rather distinctively designed, the building is being renovated.

That provides us with another view of industrial life in that there is nothing like health and safety in this country, and the workers are basically standing on what looks to be a flimsy bamboo ladder with nothing to stop them from falling off.

That is a form of entertainment in itself and keeps us occupied while the guide gets the tickets.

The museum itself has exhibits dating back a few thousand years and consist of bronze and ceramic items.  One of the highlights was a tortoiseshell with reportedly the oldest know writing ever found.

Other than that it was a series of pots, cooking utensils, a table, and ceramic pots, some in very good condition considering their age.


 
There were also small sculptures



an array of small figures



and a model of a settlement



20 minutes was long enough.

A trip to China - Day 6 - The Pagoda Forest

The pagoda forest

After another exhausting walk, by now the heat was beginning to take its toll on everyone, we arrived at the pagoda forest.



No, it's not a forest with trees it's a collection of over 100 pagodas, each a tribute to a head monk at the temple and it goes back a long time.  The tribute can have one, three, five, or the maximum seven layers the significance of which I don't remember.



This is one of the more recently constructed pagodas

                                    

From there we get a ride back on the back of a large electric wagon



to the front entrance courtyard where drinks and ice creams can be bought, and a visit to the all-important happy place.



Then it's back to the hotel.

A trip to China - Day 6 - The Shaolin Temple

The Shaolin Temple

So this is not a single building, that's not how the Chinese work.  It’s a whole host of buildings, the first of which is up some steps, through a gate, then along a tree-lined avenue with monument stones to some more steps, past a cauldron burning incense, and then to the temple.  There are several monks inside.

The front entrance:



Inside the entrance building, there are some large statues that I'm guessing are there to scare away the wrong sort of people



Once past these characters, you are on a walkway between pagodas where there are trees, and sculptures

                          

and through the next pagoda brings you to the first of the temples.  There are three doors and three buddas.  This is through the middle door



And no you can't go inside, you just stand on the outside looking in.

                               

In one part of the temple there were three monks, and, believe it or not, they were all on their mobile phones.

This is certainly not ancient times, so what did the monks do before mobile communications?

Up some more stairs to the next building,



And so on till we reach the one at the top.  Outside each is a cauldron burning incense, and that aroma hangs on the air everywhere you go in the compound.



Then it's a case of what goes up must come down, and strangely enough, it doesn't take as long to go back down, and in doing so we got to see and hear a bit of singing by the monks.

There was a story to go with the various buildings and other aspects but I didn't hear half of it, and couldn't understand our guide for the rest.

All in all, it was an interesting place, but still not worth the money we paid.

A trip to China - Day 6 - A Kung Fu School

Day 6 - Shaolin Kung Fu, Temple and Pagoda Forest

The brochure says: Today enjoy the day at leisure or take the opportunity to join an optional full-day Shaolin Kung Fu experience with lunch (not included). Visit the Shaolin Temple, nestled in the forested mountains of Henan, its the birthplace of Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism. The Shaolin Temple embraces many exciting attractions, such as the Hall of Heavenly Kings (Tianwangdian), the Mahavira Hall (Daxiongbaodian), the Pagoda Forest, the Dharma Cave and the Shaolin Temple Martial Art Training Centre.

Then continue your visit to the Pagoda Forest, where hundreds of stone pagodas, memorials to past monks, are tightly grouped together in the forest. You may also have the chance to watch an amazing exciting Shaolin Kung Fu performance at the Martial Arts Hall and may follow the masters there to learn your Kung Fu here (subject to availability).

But before we leave, there’s more about the hotel.



Separate doors for shower and toilet, and on the other side of the passage, the wash basin



Feng Shui seems to have been forgotten when planning this room.

The next morning we discover that other rooms do have bathrooms but they're small.  Some have neither tissues or toilet paper, another has a faulty power socket and cannot recharge the phone, and I'm sure there are other problems.

All in all, it seemed very odd to have the toilet and shower on one side, and the washbasin on the other side of the passage.

We leave the hotel at 8:47 and are looking forward to an up to 2 hours drive.

The kung fu school

The thing you notice most about the kung fu school is it's size and then the number of buses which tells you that it is a popular tourist stop.

And with that size comes long distances between the car park and the venues we need to go to, the first of which is about half a km, and that's just to get to the ticket plaza.



But, it is pleasantly set out and is quite a large number of shops for both souvenirs and food



We pass by some of the students going through their paces



From there it's another long, long walk to the show arena, where we're supposed to see the king fu display and because there is limited seating we have to start lining at the head of the queue to get a seat.

But...

Everyone else has the same idea and we join the throng which then becomes a ride, and true to the Chinese they start finding ways to push in, even using the imaginary friend somewhere ahead in the queue.

The doors open and then it's open slather, with the hoards pushing from behind and sliding up the side to get in first.  We go with the tide, and manage to get in and find a seat though we were separated from three of our group.

It was an interesting show even though not one word of English was spoken, which from our point of view was a disappointment because we had no idea what was going on.



However...

It wasn’t hard to follow



What the performers were doing was relatively self-explanatory, and quite fascinating especially the guy who broke a sword over his head, and the guy who stopped two spears penetrating the neck, both examples of very disciplined men.



Boys gave a demonstration of kung fu moves, and intensity and age increased as this progressed to the end.

Next, we were taken in hand by an instructor in Tai chi or an equivalent, I was not quite sure what it was called, and went through the twelve or maybe more moves that constituted a morning or afternoon exercise session or it could be just for relaxation.  I lasted the first session but it was a little difficult to do with my sore limbs and a bad back.

Not that I could remember any of it now other than hands overhead, hands in front, bent knees and a few gentle kung fu hand moves.

Perhaps when I get home I might seek out someone to show me the moves.

Whilst the others were following their training instructor, I wandered about, finding a large statue

                                        
 
And some smaller statues

Lunch in the Zen Restaurant

After all that exercise it was time to have the lunch purportedly the same food as the king fu masters.
It's in the Zen restaurant, aptly named, and the food when it came, came thick and fast, but some of it wasn't very nice, meat with bones, tofu, a tasteless soup, but some good dishes like the vegetables and noodles with meat, without bones.

The only problem, nothing to drink except a pot of hot water.  No tea, no cold water, and if you wanted a cold drink you had to pay for it.  After paying 550 yuan why should we have to pay more for a drink when we have not had to so far.

But no cold water?  That was just not on, and when we brought this to that attention of the tour guide she just simply ignored us.  We just didn't get anything.

That basically tainted the whole experience.

After lunch, we went for another half kilometre walk to the Shaolin temple.  The walk was exhausting but only in the sense that we knew there would be more inside the temple, and then onto the pagoda forest which was according to the sign yet another half a kilometre.