Suzhou and Zhouzuang, China

In last post we were at Shanghai! So this week, it's better that we will roam around Shanghai!!

About 100 kms from Shanghai is a beautiful ancient town named Suzhou or Soochow.

Today Suzhou is a prominent industrial city in East China and is famous for the science research and development institutions and industries. It is also known for the wonderful mix of industries and ancient heritage. It is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Suzhou has a history of nearly 2500 years. Along the course of time, name of the city has been changed many times. For a considerable period, it was the most prominent city in the country. The name Soochow or Suzhou has been given to the city in 589 A.D.

There were many famous gardens in Suzhou. But many of them were destroyed in rebels and wars and foreign occupations. Two of the gardens are restored. 'The Garden of Humble Administrator' is the most famous one. Originally built before 1000 years, it has changed it's appearance and plan many times with the changing of owners. The name 'Humble administrator's garden' refers to some lines from ancient Chinese classic prose.

It has total area of around 12 acres and no wonder, it is the largest garden in Suzhou.

Lotus pond

At the entrance

Map of the Garden

Restoration work going on! With a little break!

Beautiful Pavilions

Nature, Architecture and Reflection

The garden is well known for it's balance in four components. Plants, Architecture, Stones and water. It has some, very remarkable halls. Chinese paintings, Calligraphy, the carvings, beautiful wooden furniture and exquisite pottery are some the remarkable points to note while seeing the halls.

The Mural

This mural was carved on one of the entrance gates. I really wondered, what could be the meaning and so took photo of it. Does it show the generations?

One more striking feature of the garden is it's beautiful window frames. The windows are placed in such a manner that you will be able to see the changing beauty of the outside plants, water and rocks. The window frame gives an altogether different perspective to the view and the outside scene seems like a painting hung on the wall.

View of the windows from Outside

The most spectacular!

There are some beautiful rock formations in the garden.

Children will be children!!

You must avail the guide service. As I had taken the guided tour from Shanghai, an English speaking guide was with us.

Suzhou city, specially the old part is beautiful. They have maintained the ancient structures and architecture through out the city. Even the bus stops in the city are having some of the beautiful architectural features.

Bus stop!

The pattern of old houses is preserved in some lanes and they are a tourist attraction!

Suzhou was a walled city for many centuries. The length of the wall around the city was nearly 15000 meters. It had water canals around it. Suzhou is famous for its land and water gates which were entry points.

Panmen scenic area is a well developed area with Ruiraung pagoda, water and land gates, the gardens, the bridges.

Bull in the temple

This was a funny ritual in the temple. If you make a wish, and hold the tail of the bull, it seems that the wish is fulfilled!

Panmen gate

The beautiful descend in he scenic area

The ancient system to open the water gate

View from the height

Beautiful lamps and the surveillance camera!

Description of the area

Ruiguang pagoda

Suzhou is very famous for embroidered frames. I could buy some beautiful embroidered frames in my next visit to Suzhou in November 2013.

Nearby Suzhou, at 30 kms distance, is the most famous water town in China. Name of the town is 'Zhouzuang'. Zhouzuang boasts over the history and cultural background of nearly 2700 years. The waterways and well preserved, maintained ancient houses on both sides of the waterways, the climbers and creepers lining the waterways, beautiful stone bridges... each and everything makes the ambience surreal.

The town is called as 'Venice of East' and is a very popular tourist attraction and China National Tourism administration has classified this town as AAAAA scenic area. I was lucky that I could visit Zhouzuang in Spring season in April 2013. The weather was pleasant and flowers were in full bloom. The canals and waterways were kept clean and so the Gondola or boat ride became enjoyable.

I had taken a day tour from Shanghai. So I had to leave Zhouzuang before evening. But I think that the night view of the town must be spectacular. There is a cultural show in the town in the evening, which I had missed.

Life in the town is really at slow pace. All the Gondoliers were women. They patiently waited till their turn came. The town owes much of it's initial international publicity to the famous painter Chen Yifei. His painting exhibition in New York had some paintings of Zhouzuang and thus the world came to know about Zhouzuang. It's proximity to Shanghai and Suzhou, made it easy for international tourists, to have a quick one day tour to Zhouzuang.

Ancient Houses and stone bridges

Residents washing clothes

One more bridge

Knitting away the time!!

Spring is here! The Cherry blossoms!

The dream come true!

Singing a song!!

After travelling a lot on the waterways, we could explore some land ways as well!!

There was an exhibition of articles made from recycled card board boxes. It was an interesting watch. Some landmarks of the town were made in cardboard.

Leaving the place which you have really liked, is not that easy.

Good bye Zhouzuang!! I knew that I will always remember this place. Today, even after 8 years, I still remember the enchanting Gondola ride and the cherry blossom and the stone bridges and the climbers and creepers and the pleasant weather and the happy happy me!!

#ClassicalGardensInChina #OneDayTourFromShanghai #No1WaterTownInChina #SilkThreadEmbroidary #VeniceOfEast #GondolaRideInChina #NatureAndArchitectureInChina

Comments

Arundhati PatkiJanuary 9, 2021 at 3:55 PM
Beautiful garden👌👌
hold the tail of the bull, Reminds me mouse outside ganesh temple Or nandi outside shiva temple ( wish is fulfilled!)😃😃
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We dream… we dream about many things … but we strive to make only few of them a reality and leave the rest of the dreams as dreams only, to cherish them someday in our leisure time. A high altitude trek was one such dream of mine, always enthralling and yet a little daunting. So for years that dream remained a dream without becoming a reality. In November, my friend Dhanshree Jagtap did the Deoria Tal Chandrashila trek with Indiahikes. While chatting with her, I could get detailed information about this trek. She told that in March and April, rhododendron flowers will be blooming in this region … and the dormant dream was awakened once again. It is said that DeoriaTal is the lake where the famous Yaksha and Yudhishthira conversation had taken place. On the way to the summit, Tungnath is the highest temple of Shankara in the world, one of the Panch Kedars. It is said to have been built by the Pandavas. The summit point of the trek is Chandrashila. The place where Chandra did Tapas. It i...

Deoriatal Chandrashila trek - Part 2- - Sari to Deoriatal.

The next morning, the trek started with a steep climb!! At one point during the climb, we turned back and bade goodbye to the Sari base camp. It was not known whether we would successfully complete the trek or not. But I was sure that we will definitely come back with a life changing experience. Sari Base camp 📷 Supan Shah The road was paved with rough stones. But while climbing I was telling myself that these stones were better than walking in the slippery soil. 📷 Pawan Gowda You can guess how much the climb was, from this photo, but if you want to know how we were climbing, there is a video! विडिओ - सम्राट दर्डा https://youtube.com/shorts/CJuWDSml8XU?feature=share The initial, few meters part of the road passed through populated areas. But the houses there were very few and sparse. Green fields were visible everywhere. Farming was done on the mountain slopes, by step method. This greenery enlivened the entire slope. The view 📷 Supan Shah 📷 Samrat Darda After walking o...

Deoriatal Chandrashila trek - Part 3- Deoriatal to Syalmi

That was the third day of the trek. I was feeling contented. Yesterday's journey from Sari to Deoria was beautiful. Neither were my legs paining nor was I feeling tired. Today was surely going to be a tough day. I had read the description on the Indiahikes website, which gave a rough idea about the day. Today the distance was more than nine kilometers. But there were many peaks which will be visible on the way. We were going to pass through a dense forest, so there was a chance to watch variety of birds. So I was curious and excited about the journey. All of us, left from Deoriatal campsite and started our journey. Even though we had only been there for a day, we had already grown attached to the place. Even if it has only been a day, surely there is always attachment with the place.There was a fork in the forest path on the left side of the road to Deoriatal. We went that way. After walking for a while, most likely we were goi...

Deoriatal Chandrashila trek - Part 5(Last part)- Baniyakund - Tungnath- Chandrashila

📷Samrat Darda A beautiful photograph of the moon taken from Baniyakund campsite, April 15. That day should be Saptami or Ashtami of Shukla Paksha. Because Ram Navami was on 17th April. In the intense and tranquil darkness of the beautiful night, though the full moon day was still seven or eight days away, the moon was already bright. The shining moon, occasionally hiding behind the clouds, the curiosity of the summit in our minds.. it was a very unique night. There was going to be a two o'clock wakeup call tomorrow. we had to pack up, have breakfast, and be ready to leave for the day at three o'clock. I packed the essential things in the day pack and packed everything else in the bag to be offloaded. That bag was to kept in the main tent while leaving in the morning. Tomorrow, in few hours we would gain an altitude of 4000 ft. I closed my eyes to sleep, but even before my closed eyes, the images of the snow-capped peaks were floating. I woke up at quarter to two in ...

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