The Most Under-Impressive Segment of the Trip

After leaving Suzhou, we headed to Wuxi, the town with no tin.  Our local guide, Christina, explained that's what Wuxi means - no tin.  When we arrived, we went straight to The Three Kingdoms City TV production lot.  We had a little time to walk around the lot and look at the props.  One of our group was taking pix of the soldier replicas with a Snapchat filter.  You'll just have to imagine the bunny ears on Chinese warriors, though, because I don't have Snapchat.

To top off the evening, there was a show regarding one of the wars between the various clans.  This show was done in the ring.  The Chinese do an awesome job in their stage shows, but this show on horseback was highly disappointing.  There was no synchronized riding, no trick riding, no specialized skills. It was mostly just one rider at a time galloping around the ring while the rider swung around a lance or some other prop.  The horses were well trained to not shy at all the flags and other distractions.

Then, we headed to the hotel.  It was a nice room, the Swiss-Belhotel.  There was an extra telephone in the bathroom.  I guess that was for when nature calls.

After getting settled in the room, we had just enough energy left to take a taxi to the local mall, where Chrissy found some hair bows that she liked and I checked out the Big Mac.  Once again, it tasted like a Big Mac.  Some of the other members of the group said they got other McDonald's sandwiches, and the cheese tasted a little off, but the special sauce apparently covered up any changes.  The biggest difference to me was that the fries weren't nearly as salty as they are most places, and I couldn't get a salt packet to add.

We woke in the morning, had another buffet breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and proceeded to the pearl factory.  They no longer provide a tour of the pearl farms, only to the showroom and sales room.  There are no pictures allowed in the pearl showroom.  In the front, they have the cultured or seed pearls  In the back they have a room in which they sell the natural pearls.  When the saleslady decided to put a US$5000 necklace around my neck, I jokingly told her that if it falls down my shirt, I get to keep it.  Imagine my surprise when the necklace fell!!  Unfortunately, it didn't go down my shirt, so ...

Because it was raining, we passed on the boat ride on the lake in Wuxi and headed straight to Hangzhou.  This was the one place on the trip to which I have no interest in returning.

Silks, The Grand Canal, and the Lingering Garden in Suzhou

After landing safely in Shanghai, we met our next guide, George.  He was pretty good, not quite as good as Fei-Fei, but she was pretty awesome!  I didn't take pictures of our hotel in Suzhou, but it was nice.  It was the Vienna International Hotel for anyone who wants to look it up.  Breakfast was a buffet with a few different choices than in Beijing, but  mostly the same.  I think we got to sleep an extra half hour, but  we had to pack everything up because we were only this one night in Suzhou.

After breakfast and boarding the bus, our first stop was at the silk factory.  Suzhou is a famous area for silk worm farming.  I had never thought of the process of working with silk cocoons, but it was really kind of fascinating.  The silk fabric that we normally think of is just the normal weaving that is used with cotton, etc.  However, the soft, fuzzy "quilts" are a completely different process.  With any work with silk, you first have to soak the cocoons to make them flexible.

Once the silk is pliable, you begin stretching the cocoons, one at a time, over a frame.  The number of cocoons you will use will depend on the weight you want of your quilt - whether you're making a duvet, a coat, or other thick type of item.  They let us participate in making a quilt.

Even after being stretched on the frame like this, the silk still has a lot of give.  You can test it by pulling on it.  If you pull a piece off, it burns and smells like hair.  If it smells like plastic, it probably is.

These quilts are so incredibly soft, putting the single-ply fabrics to shame.  After learning how these were made, we went into the showroom and had the opportunity to purchase some of the silk products.  We took advantage of that opportunity when Chrissy found a beautiful, soft, winter coat. It was just perfect for her, and I couldn't pass it up!  I also found a silk tapestry that I liked, so I got it, too.

After leaving the silk factory, we toured the Lingering Garden.  The best Chinese gardens are multifaceted.  Just when you think you've seen the most breathtaking area possible, you turn the corner, and there's an even better section!  The Lingering Garden was just like that.  I did need help getting up and down some of the rocky paths going up and down through the garden.  And the first part of the garden path was made with pebbles with mosaic designs in various places.

Then was the bonsai garden.

And into this little recessed area

before boarding the bus and heading to the Grand Canal.  Our local guide (pretty much the only one whose name I can't remember) said Suzhou is known as the Venice of China because of the Grand Canal.  The Grand Canal is hailed as the longest and oldest man-made waterway in the world, going from Beijing to Hangzhou.  It links the Yellow River and the Yangtze River,.  The oldest parts were dug as early as the 5th century BC, with the Sui dynasty starting to connect them.  Later dynasties rerouted and added parts until it was connected all the way to Beijing during the Qing dynasty.

It was an interesting ride with some homes in desperate need of repair and some interesting bridges, such as broken bridge (above) and one bridge with beautiful, detailed murals on both sides.

After our boat ride down a section of the Grand Canal, we went to the silk embroidery school.  They had some amazing embroidery works, including two sided pieces where different scenes were on each side of the tapestry or where the same scene was on each side but in different colors.  Based on pricing, I was very glad I purchased at the silk factory.  We weren't allowed to take pictures in the embroidery school, so the pictures I've posted here are from the tapestry/embroidery section of the silk factory. At the embroidery school, we watched the artisans working.  At the silk factory, the workstation was there, but the artisan was not working at that time.

From the embroidery school, we boarded the bus and headed to Wuxi.  As we were on the road, we drove through "Wedding Dress Row".  Being the capital of silk farming, it would only stand to reason that Suzhou would be the wedding dress capital of the world.  Just from what we could see from the windows of the bus and through the rain, these are absolutely gorgeous gowns!

Similarities With Ancient Chinese and Mayans Learned on Our Last Day in Beijing

Our final day in Beijing featured only two stops before heading to the airport for our flight to Shanghai.  After having our normal breakfast buffet and checking out of the hotel in Beijing, we boarded the bus with all of our luggage and headed to the Chinese Herbal Institute.  There was no photography allowed once we left the initial entry, so I have no pictures of the institute.

This is a medical school where they also treat patients.  One of the professors came in and gave us a brief overview lecture about some of the major differences between Western medicine and Chinese medicine, both in diagnosis and treatment.  During that lecture, those who wanted to participate were soaking their feet in herbal waters.  Following the lecture, some of the students came in and did a reflexology treatment on the feet that had been soaked.  Along with the reflexology, those who wanted could speak with a doctor, who would demonstrate the diagnostic differences and would offer treatment options.  I took advantage of speaking with the doctor.  Without going into my medical history, I have some conditions which have been diagnosed, requiring some minimally invasive procedures for the diagnosis, and which Western medicine offers no treatment. 

When the doctor came to me, he looked at my eyes and hands, had me show him my tongue and the inside of my mouth, and asked me a few basic questions, such as my age.  His first diagnosis was my reflux, which could have just been a good guess, given my size.  His next diagnosis was one for which Western doctors needed labs to even initially suspect and an ultrasound to confirm.  It's also one that Western medicine offers no treatment. (Trust me - I've asked multiple physicians in multiple related specialties in multiple locations.)  Because this particular condition is believed to impact my ability to maintain or lose weight and also makes it more difficult to treat some of my other conditions, I have spent considerable amounts of money on multiple "remedies" with little to no empirical support in hopes that something will work.  This doctor diagnosed from a brief, external, fully clothed exam what took Western doctors lab tests to even suspect and an ultrasound to confirm.  It's not a terribly common condition, and until that exam, I was under the impression that I had no visible signs of it. He said that a 6-month period of taking some herbal medicines that would not interfere with my regular medicines and soaking my feet for 10 minutes each night in warm water should cure the condition.  He suggested that I only start when I am going to be home for a while so that I'm more likely to be consistent in treatment.  Therefore, I have only now started.  When the treatment is over I'll let you know if it works.  To put anyone's mind at rest, I will remain under the watchful care of my Western doctors during this period.  We'll see how it goes.

After leaving the Herbal Institute, we headed to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, which were initially on our schedule for day 1, but they were closed that day.  Fei-Fei gave us some information about the history surrounding Tianenmen Square, both before and after Chairman Mao and the formation of the People's Republic of China.  She did, however, tell us that she could not tell us where the 1989 incident occurred, nor could she confirm that an incident even did occur in 1989 or that tanks had ever been on the square other than for parades.  Tiananmen Square is quite sizable, and the walk to the Forbidden City is quite long, so we didn't spend much time exploring the square.  On our way to the Forbidden City, we passed by the Mausoleum of Chairman Mao Zedong and the Monument to the People's Heroes.

Again, the pollution was terrible.  This was virtually right in front of us.  When we got close to the Gate of Heavenly Peace, we stopped and waited for Fei-Fei to get our tickets.  That huge monstrosity in the foreground is security cameras.

The Forbidden city gets its name because it was Forbidden for anyone to enter without the Emperor's permission.  Over the centuries, the Forbidden City housed 24 different emperors, being constructed during the Ming Dynasty.  At the entrance, there is an outer courtyard that is far from the next gate.  In fact, I had to stop the group at least once, and potentially twice because I simply could not keep up and breathe at the same time.  As you keep going, each gate get more ornate...

until you finally reach the inner sanctum

Once inside the the inner palace grounds, the similarities between the ancient Chinese and the Mayans (and probably other ancient civilizations).  Just like the Mayans, the ancient Chinese also cleared all greenery from their palatial grounds.  In the case of the Chinese, the emperors were afraid someone may hide behind a tree to kill them.  I'm not aware of the reasoning by the Mayans.  There is also the carvings on the external pathways of the creatures for protection and other reasons as well as the requirement that certain structures could only be used for one purpose.  Here are some shots of the ceremonial halls of the Forbidden City.

After passing the ceremonial halls, you enter the gates to the living and working quarters.

This consisted primarily of a long corridor with gates on either side leading to various parts of the quarters.  We went into the homes of the concubines, which had a courtyard in the center.  The room in the rear has been converted to a shop, but the areas on either side are preserved, and you can look inside behind glass to see how they were during part of the emperors' rule.

Upon leaving the concubines' quarters, we went to the gardens.  In China, gardens must be in harmony between nature and humanity with three elements: Stone or mountains, water, and flowers or trees.  This was not one of the more memorable gardens we saw on our visit to China, but it did have an abundance of blocking stones in this garden, and there were a few of them spaced individually throughout the grounds.

According to Wikipedia and other sources, there was a lot to the Forbidden City we were not shown, such as a mote and turrets and various other things.  At some point, I may want to return, but I'll need to be able to cover much more ground and breathe better before trying it again.

After leaving the Forbidden City, we went back to the Beijing airport, where Po and his gang (from Kung-Fu Panda) got us safely to Shanghai.  We then caught a bus to our next destination, Suzhou.