Suzhou (pronounced Su-Ju)
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2007
1
20
58
Trip End
Oct 22, 2007
Suzhou,
China
Sunday, September 23, 2007
The Pan Men Gate; as usual in China, nothing is quite what it seems. While there are two gates, both of which were controlled by portcullises, and pretty impressive too, they were not just gates. There was a huge pagoda set in beautiful gardens with a lake and a few other buildings for temples and the obligatory tea and souvenir shops. The gates themselves were fascinating in the way they were used for keeping the enemies out as well as controlling the water level of the river. It is amazing how all the ancient civilizations came up with all these ingenious inventions.
The Liu Yuan Garden also known as the Lingering Gardens. These gardens were created by a doctor for his patients to be able to relax and recover after their treatments, somewhat different from today's medical practice rooms! The gardens are spread out over about 4 hectares and split into all sorts of different areas connected by a winding corridor. There is a giant stone area, a small lake, lots of areas where different musicians play their traditional instruments, a tree and stone forest and, no doubt, a number of other areas that we did not see
Pan Men Gate
. Although there were a lot of us tourists visiting, we did manage to find a quiet pagoda to sit in and look at that part of the garden with very little interruption.Tiger Hill is a man-made hill which has a giant pagoda at the top that has, over many years, become a leaning pagoda similar to the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. In keeping with the similarity, this Leaning Pagoda has become the symbol of Suzhou. In addition, this is where the founding father of Suzhou, He Lu, was buried, apparently along with 3,000 swords for protection but these have never been found. Legend has it that a white tiger came down from the mountains to protect him which is where the name comes from. Tiger Hill is the "Number 1, AAAA Rated" tourist spot in Suzhou.
Later we checked into our hotel, an extremely comfortable Holiday Inn where I have sat all night updating our Blog. Finally I am completely up to date, something that won't happen again for a while as we go back to Shanghai in the morning and then we are off to Tibet. I am sure there will be Internet access but I am also sure we will be far too busy admiring the scenery, lakes and monasteries to get anywhere near the Internet for a while.
So, until the next time, depending on where you are, I bid you good night, good morning or good afternoon :-)
