Me & City (Suzhou, China)

The Master of the Nets Garden, which belongs to the World Culture Heritage List by UNESCO,  is one of the four most famous gardens in Suzhou.  MNG is a very typical Suzhou style garden, which is also a representing work of the pocket- sized classical garden in the  southern areas of the lower reaches of the Yangze River.

The garden was first built in Southern Song dynasty, AD 1174, owned by SHI Zhenzhi, a government officer who residing in Suzhou after his retirement.  SHI named it as “The fisherman’s Retreat”, from which his willing to return to pastoral is expressed definitely.

click to view more photos

The garden was re-built in Qing dynasty, around AD1765 and was re-named as the one of today. During the past long time history, MNG was handed over from one owner to another. Until  1950, the offspring of HE Yanong, the latest host  of the garden donated it to the public. After a fully re-construction taken in 1958 by Suzhou Garden Bureau,  the garden opened to public officially.

As I mentioned MNG is a pocket-sized garden, she do illustrate how less than more.  The center of the garden is a pond with pathways and pavilions surrounding. Different buildings, decorated with trees, flowers and rockeries, are perfectly spaced to realize unlimited vision effect in  limited space, scenes beyond scenes.

Enjoy the pictures I took in the Master of the Nets Garden with me or visit the official site of MNG for more info!

It is always glad to know and talk to different people, especially when you are travelling or move to a new place.   Talking to locals is one of the interesting experiences among your whole trip.  So have fun and make more Chinese friends by introducing you in Mandarin. It’s cool:)

我(wǒ)叫(jiào)Jim
My name is Jim.

我(wǒ)是(shì)美国人(měiguórén)
I am American.

我(wǒ)是(shì)工程师(gōngchéngshī)
I am an engineer.

我(wǒ)住(zhù)在(zài) 园(yuán)区(qū)
I live in SIP(Singapore International Park).

我(wǒ)来(lái)苏(sū)州(zhōu)1个(gè)月(yuè)了(le)
I’ve been Suzhou for 1 month.

这(zhè)是(shì)我(wǒ)的(de)太(tài)太(tài)/丈(zhàng)夫(fu)/儿(ér)子(zǐ)/女(nǚ)儿(ér)/爸(bà)爸(ba)/妈(mā)妈(mā)
This is my wife/husband/son/daughter/Dad/Mom

I was waken up by osmathus fragrance this morning. Was the season already over? I wandered. It’s raining outside. What a day! As I went downstairs the sweet fragrance got stronger. I knew where it came from as I approach to the kitchen.
“Morning, want some tangyuan”( very traditional suzhou food, made of sticky rice powder) my mom turned over with a warm smile on her face.
“So you used your secret weapon, is this the last year sweet osmathus sauce” I asked.
“No. I made it last month, it’s fresh new one.
“I am so gonna screw up my diet plan” I murmured. Well I have to do it next time.

You can easily find sweet osmathus sauce at traditional sweetmeat shop like the Cai Zhi Zhai and the Ye Shou He confectionery shops any season. It’s been widerly used in traditional dessert and beverage. I especially like to add into plum juice. It’s not easy to find accurate words to describe the taste, but only imaging the mouthful of flower fragrance after sipping it.

I have to be honest there’s no high mountain in Suzhou.  However, if you would like to enjoy some hiking and climbing, Tianping Hill is the one you can’t miss though it is only 201 meters above the sea level.

Tianping hill locates in the southwest part of Suzou, which is named “No. 1 hill in the Central Wu”(Wu is the ancient name of Suzhou and around Suzhou).  What’s the most attraction of Tianping Hill is the colorful maple trees spreading over the foot of the hill.  Tianping Hill is regarded as one of the four best places for enjoying the red maples in fall, sharing the same popularity with the Xiang Hill in Beijing, Xixia Hill in Nanjing and Qiulu Hill in Hunan.

click to view more photos

I have a hint for you that according to my experience the second and the third weeks of Nov are the best period to enjoy red maples. During that time, the colors of the maples are most colorful, with the different levels of green to red to yellow.  The magic of nature!

Enjoy some pictures I took in the previous falls.

The Red Maple Festival this year is from 24th Oct to 6th Dec, and the admission is RMB 18.  Bus 315, 37  have stops at Tianping Hill.

I always feel I have too much words for my hometown. That’s what I’m doing:)  But I guess some of  you must want one line, maybe no more than 140 words like twitter  to figure out a general concept for this city first.  Let me try to find one for you, though it really challenges me, haa.

Okay, may be this one. Suzhou is a city where you will be amazed to feel the different levels of time and development happening simultaneously, both old and new,  peace and vitality,  ancient and contemporary all at once.

If you find a little bit lack of imagination upon above words, maybe you would like to read something more tangible in my previous post Suzhou at a glance including the basic statistics,  geographical location and culture & history for a vivid image of Suzhou.

I also want to hear what’s in your mind on Suzhou?  Leave your message here if you have one sentence for Suzhou:)

Suzhou and Beijing are more close! From today, the least time of the journey you spend on a  train between Suzhou and Beijing will be updated to about 9 and half hours, one and half hours shorter than the previous Z86(from Suzhou to Beijing)/Z85(from Beijing to Suzhou).

Both the old Z86 and the new D386 are direct lines without stops between Suzhou and Beijing. I remember Z86 was launched since 2004 and was preferred by many  travellers because just a night sleep you waken in your destination.  And today the new D386 is launched to instead Z85 for a more nice sleep.

Here are some useful information I collected about D386(from Suzhou to Beijing)/385(from Beijing to Suzhou)  on different aspects.

Time
Z86        7:55 PM~6:48 AM(11hours)
D386     9:38 PM~7:15 AM(9 and half hours)

Capacity
D386 has 2 CRH2E Motor train berth units including total 16 carriages. There are 1 dining car, 2 soft cushion seat cars and 13 soft berth cars with 630 rated passenger capacity in total.

Full fare
RMB 309 for soft cushion seat
RMB 615 for soft upper berth
RMB 690 for soft lower berth

Sites
From 2nd Nov. to 10th, Nov, D386 departs from Suzhou Railway Station and reaches Beijing Railway Station.
11st Nov. afterwards, D386 departs from Suzhou Railway Station and reaches Beijing Southern Railway Station.