Exploring China (Part 2) ~ Suzhou

Day 2 ~ Suzhou is approximately a 2 hour bus ride from Hangzhou.

We were met by our Suzhou tour guide Ms Helen at Ou Yuan which is popularly known as The Couple Garden Retreat. Ou Yuan was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.

This classical gardens was built by a prominent official during the Qing Dynasty. The garden consists of two parts. The west part has two courtyards & the east part has a courtyard with a moon gate which leads to a large garden. The gardens consists of pavilions, ponds & beautifully sculptured gardens. 

 Ou Yuan is surrounded by a canal on three sides & has piers close to the front & back entrances. Sculling boats ply this canal ferrying visitors from the back to the front entrance. These boatmen will sing traditional Chinese songs as they row their boats back to the front of the gardens.

The main entrance to the gardens

The main Hall of the residence

The Gardens

The Moon Gate

 The sculling boat waiting to take us back to the front entrance

Enjoying our ride with the boatman entertaining us with traditional Chinese songs

Our singing boatman

We next headed over to the iconic Suzhou Bird's Nest. This is the largest multi functional stadium in Suzhou, which is also known as the twin brother of the Beijing Bird's nest. According to our guide Helen, Suzhou Bird's Nest was constructed 1st before the official permission was granted to build another replica of it in Beijing which is the Beijing Bird's Nest Stadium.

We arrived just in time to see the spectacular LED lights display.

From here we quickly departed for Harmony Times Square as we do not want to miss the LED screen show. The Harmony LED Sky screen is about 500 meters long, 32 meters wide & 21 meters high. It spans from one end to the other end of the Times Square walkway.   Its building scale has surpassed Las Vegas Sky Screen and Sky Screen for Beijing World Trade Centre.  

Group photo at Harmony Times Square

 After dinner we checked in for the night at Days Hotel. We decided to do some venturing on our own after checking in.

And we found this! "Chou Tofu"

Days Hotel, Suzhou

Day 3 ~ Good Morning from Suzhou!! Our last destination for Suzhou before leaving for Wuxi is the Suzhou Silk Factory. China is most famous for its silk & Suzhou is known for its silk production. We were shown the whole process of silk making...from cocoons to finished products.

Suzhou Silk Factory

Mulberry trees ~ the leaves that silk worms primarily feed on

The many stages of silk processing

Showroom

Finished products

There are more silk products that are for sale in another section of the factory ranging from clothes, scarfs to bags where photography is not allowed. 
Our tour ended with a luncheon at the restaurant at the Silk Factory.

Choyers Restaurant at Suzhou Silk Factory

Group photo with our Suzhou guide Helen

Scenes around Suzhou

 Typical house architecture we see around Hangzhou & Suzhou. According to our guide the 3 spears on the roof symbolises "Health", "Wealth" & "Prosperity"

 Houses along the outskirts of Suzhou

View outside Days Hotel

Suzhou Dishes