Suzhou

We were familiar with Suzhou as the sister-city of Portland, which completed a wonderful downtown Chinese garden in 2001. We visited the Portland garden at the beginning of our journey on a sunny day in December, and it touches you in a deep, tranquil way. If you haven't gone yet, then log off now and get down there!

We didn't realize that Suzhou is THE garden city of China. We initially planned to visit Suzhou because of the sister-city relationship and the Portland garden. As we read the travel books, Suzhou also is a favorite tourist highlight. And then when Rob met us in Hong Kong to give us travel tips, he also suggested that Suzhou is a must. So off we go!

The first gardens were built in Suzhou 1500 years ago! Built by nobility, they were private gardens for their residences. Gradually, Suzhou became quite an exclusive area, with many wealthy people building their own gardens during the Song dynasty and reaching a pinnacle during the Qin dynasty, just before the European invasions (Opium wars...). At the peak, there were hundreds of gardens in the city.

In northern China, gardens are large parks, filing ravines or small valleys, incorporating views of distant hills and mountains. The southern gardens of Suzhou are much smaller, private gardens. Many are just the size of a large city lot, and the biggest are only about one city bock. They were designed as private gardens, composed of structures, rock, plants, literature, and water. The residential buildings are just one component, no more or less important than the others, and are integral to the garden. Rather than one large house, the structures are individual rooms scattered throughout the garden.

The garden is much more than just a beautiful place. The purpose is deeply rooted in Chinese beliefs. The garden is a place to improve oneself by escaping from the noisy world, and engaging in reflection and contemplation of nature and poetry.

The gardens are well described on line. For example, check out http://www.chinavista.com/suzhou/tour/garden.html. The "big four" gardens are described very well, including some pictures.

The Humble Administrators Garden is the largest, and was the most similar to the Portland garden. In fact, some components looked like clones. It is composed of several ponds, many buildings, and walks. As one of the main four gardens, tour buses of people constantly stream in the gate, so the quiet of the garden is compromised, but in corners it still has a nice calming effect on you. This garden also houses the museum for the Suzhou gardens, and a bonsai collection with 6,000 specimens!

The Masters of the Net garden is often cited as the best garden, with the most exquisite detail. It is a tiny garden, and completely packed with tourists. With many pavilions in a small space, it also had more focus on the buildings and less on the rocks, plants and water. We didn't like it as much. However, this garden is quite spectacular at night. In the evening, the garden is home to cultural performances of story, song and dance. The audience moves from pavilion to pavilion for short performances. The costumes and ambiance are outstanding, and the colors and soft light are reflected in the ponds. The performances are each quite short --there must have been a dozen different ones to give a flavor of so many different styles.

Our favorite garden the first day was the Blue Wave Pavilion. It captured natural beauty the best, with an abundance of water, rock and greenery. It is also not one of the "big four" gardens, so was very quiet. We were able to sit and enjoy the garden the way it was intended, and put us into a great frame of mind. We stayed until closing time.

We came back to Suzhou a second day, and visited the Lingering Garden. It is a rather large garden, by southern China standards, with a wonderful balance of buildings and gardens. So many pavilions overlooked private little garden areas, or the large pond. Each pavilion was private, giving the sense of being off in a natural area. Walking from one to another involved a complex web of walkways, gates, and passages. It was designed to make it difficult to remember exactly where you were and how to get out, so that you really would just focus on the one garden you are in. We spent many hours wandering around, sitting and relaxing, staring off into the distance. The first day in Suzhou we saw several gardens, but on the second day we came much closer to experiencing the gardens as they were intended. We talked about an ideal house that would be built with concepts from the Suzhou gardens --each room stands alone in a garden, and they are connected together by walkways and beauty.

The trip back from Suzhou the first day showed the yin/yang spirit of the Chinese. They are a warm, friendly people --but are also very selfish when competing for transportation. We saw the warmth when we arrived to return the bicycles and found the rental shop closed (it was after 9PM). It was a problem for us, since we were actually staying in Shanghai and needed to catch the train. The lady in the next shop down the street couldn't bear to just leave us, and she interceded on our behalf. We could hardly communicate a word between us, but we were able to explain our situation and she explained that she would go find the shopkeeper. At first we protested, since he was somewhere else but eventually she snagged a friend who was passing on the street and sent him off on her motorcycle to fetch the shopkeeper. Ultimately, she stayed until 10 PM to help us out, getting home quite late herself. This kind of generosity is quite common in China.

On the other hand, China is a dense place, and competition for seats on transportation is fierce. At the rail station, rather than queue up for seats, the crowd pushes and shoves to reach the front. It is right and proper to force your elbow and shoulder ahead of the person next to or even in front of you, and then push hard to gain the advantage. Likewise, people jump over the barricades, run up the side, and then jump back into the crowd further ahead. Then, people will claim two seats so that they can lie down, oblivious to the fact that others must stand for the long train ride. But this really presents no problem, since those left standing will just push the others over off the extra seat and claim it!