Friday, May 18, 2007

Suzhou

I’ll be posting this the day after I write it, since we don’t have internet access in tonight’s hotel. I thought about trying an Internet Café, but my phrase book doesn’t include the translation for “may I insert my flash drive in your USB port.” Saying that in Mandarin might get some interesting looks, or might land me in jail.

This morning (Thursday), we assembled in the lobby at 8:30 and were taken by bus to the Shanghai train station. This is a huge Stalinesque building fronting a plaza full of buses, bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trucks, and people with suitcases—all jostling to get through. We carried our luggage to the boarding area and took a 10:20 AM express train to Suzhou. The train speed is 130 MPH, so the trip only took about 40 minutes—a nice, comfortable ride.

Once off the train, we made our way to our shuttle bus through a massive construction zone. Lots of people, lots of confusion, and lots of construction. We boarded the bus and were delivered to the ChangMen hotel, another 15 minutes away. The hotel is inside a gated compound and appears to be a business conference center. It’s a very nice setting with a lake, gardens, and much nicer rooms and amenities than the place in Shanghai. After checking into our rooms, we walked over to the hotel restaurant and had a huge group meal. Cost was about $2.50 US for a smorgasbord of Chinese dishes and cokes.

We got back on the bus and headed to the “Garden for Lingering,” one of the main tourist attractions in Suzhou. The city is known for its ancient gardens, several of which are designated World Heritage sites. At the first garden, we were ushered into a large conference room where we were seated in comfortable chairs at coffee tables set with tea and trays of tomatoes and bananas. We had a very informative presentation on city planning and park planning from senior staff members from the Parks Department and the Construction Bureau. They gave us some good background information on Suzhou, which has a population of about 6 million people (2 million in the central city) and talked about their plans to accommodate another 6 million people in the coming decades.

At least, there seemed to be a greater sensitivity to history and the effects of growth on the existing city. They talked about the importance of parks and gardens, and setting aside land for open space as the city grew. That awareness seemed to be missing in Shanghai, and it was nice to hear the planners acknowledge it here. We bombarded the speakers with questions for over an hour, again anxious to learn how they approach planning in this country.

After the meeting we walked nextdoor to the gardens and spent about an hour doing a self-guided tour. The gardens were originally developed hundreds of years ago and had what we would consider “classic” Chinese features (bonsai trees, lakes, rock sculptures, and a maze of pathways and passages.) We continued from this site (by bus) to the Garden of the Nets, another Classic Chinese landscape. The garden was over 900 years old. Suzhou itself is over 2500 years old and is located on an ancient canal that connected the ocean to Beijing. Portions of the old city wall are still intact.

By 6 PM we returned to our hotel for a 45 minute break. At 7, we were back on the bus again, this time driving to the boat terminus to take a river cruise. This provided another vantage point from which to see the city. From the water, Suzhou has a very Venetian quality, with a “grand canal” and lots of narrow side canals lined with crumbling medieval buildings. It’s astounding to think this place is just 50 miles from Shanghai.

It was already dark out, so many of the shoreline buildings were illuminated with Chinese lanterns and twinkling lights. There were restaurants and cafes along the shore, and in some places pedestrian promenades. Unfortunately, the water was filthy and smelled pretty bad; but still, you got the idea that this was an elegant and special place.

Eventually the boat pulled up to a landing and we disembarked onto a quay. We walked a block or so through a busy pedestrian-only shopping area, arriving at a Muslim restaurant featuring cuisine from Xinjiang province (far Western China). We were led upstairs into a private dining room where women in burkha-like outfits were setting the table. The dinner was a feast that would have made Genghis Khan proud—plate upon plate upon plate of unusual Central Asian dishes. Many of the dishes were made with mutton, but they were nicely seasoned and very tasty. Two of our group (Franco and Jean) were celebrating their birthdays so we even had cake and singing of “Happy Birthday” in Mandarin. A few of us capped the evening with a drink at the hotel bar before calling it a night.

Suzhou seems like a much nicer and more livable city than Shanghai. It is not as prosperous, but the scale seems just about right, and it appears to function pretty well. One wonders, though, if it is only a matter of time before it is gobbled up and becomes “West Shanghai.”

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