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

Exploring China (Part 1) ~ Hangzhou

Hi everyone! Yeah..yeahh..I know. It's been so long since my last blog posting & that was in middle of 2014...over a year ago!!!

Anyway, I haven't been travelling around much so nothing to write about...until I went to CHINA!! Yes...I finally made it to China in Sept. 2014(well part of it at least =P)

In our 6 days guided tour, we covered HANGZHOU, SUZHOU, WUXI & SHANGHAI. We had to pre-book our English guide as none of us spoke any Mandarin (except my hubby) You can pretty much say it was a private tour for our group of 10pax as the other party that was suppose to join us in China did not make it....so we had the whole bus to ourselves...Yayyyy!!

Our 1st glimpse of Hangzhou from the air

HANGZHOU
Day 1 ~ 1st stop West Lake Scenic Area. West Lake (XiHu in Chinese) is a man made freshwater lake with just an average depth of about 7 feet. West Lake is a main attraction in Hangzhou. The lake & it's surrounding has all the elements of a traditional chinese garden but on a grand scale. Lovely crafted gardens & lush greenery greeted us as we strolled along well laden paths & tiny bridges towards the famed West Lake for our cruise, stopping by Red Carp Pond to feed the hundreds of fishes. The cruise took us around the main lake & our local guide brought to our attention a most famous Pagoda called Leifeng Pagoda located on a hill along the south of West Lake. This pagoda became famous because of the popular folk tale "The Legend of the White Snake" a touching love story about a girl who changed into a snake.

Entrance to West Lake

Red Carp Pond

Lifeng Pagoda

 Group photo on the cruise boat

Dinner at West Lake

 Our 1st meal in Huangzhou

After dinner at West lake we were treated to Hangzhou Night Of West Lake Show an indoor stage show which features on China's folklore and myths of Hangzhou. A lovely performance which was narrated in Mandarin.

It has been a tiring yet exciting 1st day in Hangzhou. We checked into Hangzhou Pujing Garden Hotel for a night before seeing more of Hangzhou tomorrow before leaving for Suzhou.

Hangzhou Pujing Garden Hotel

Day 2 ~ Good Morning from Hangzhou!!!  Woke up all well rested & ready for another day discovering Hangzhou. 

China is famous of their various kinds of tea. Hangzhou is the home of the renowned Longjing Tea or better known as Dragon well Tea. Meijiawu Tea Village is situated on the west of West Lake, a famous stop over for tourists to learn about tea culture in China. Tea produced in Meijiawu Village is among the best varieties of West Lake dragon tea.

From left : Tea flowers, tea seeds, oil from tea seeds, firing process

 Leaves are handpicked from the fields and roasted right away, preventing the natural oxidation process as well as fermentation. Placed in a traditional wide, wok-like pan in a process called "firing," the delicate leaves are heated to a very high temperature before drying. When steeped in hot water, Dragon Well tea produces a yellow-green color, and features a subtle, smooth flavor. The tea is said to aid digestion and offers an array of other wellness and health benefits.

Tea Hostess explaining the process of tea making & the benefits of Longjing Tea

Our last stop in Hangzhou is the site of Nansong Guanyao or better known as Southern Song Dynasty Guan Klin Museum. This is the first museum in China devoted to pottery & porcelain which is built over & around the remains of the Jiaotanxia Guan Klins. These klins produce high quality imperial porcelain during the Southern Song Dynasty.

Group photo with our Hangzhou tour guide Ms Holiday

SCENES AROUND HANGZHOU

Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport

Qiantang River ~ Hangzhou main water source

Hangzhou dishes