We woke up bright and early in Wuxi and had the usual buffet breakfast at our hotel, the Jinling Hotel. It had the usual mix of Chinese and western offerings, with a welcome addition of salted duck.
Salted duck, sesame ball, fried egg, soup dumplings, roasted potatoes
Wontons with tofu and mixed greens, ready to be made into soup
After breakfast we boarded our bus and headed to Yuantouzhu Park, or “Turtle’s Head” Park, which is next to Lake Tai. The lake is humongous, four times the size of Singapore. Now I know firsthand that Singapore isn’t the biggest country, but a lake that is four times its size? Crazy! The park had a lovely path that followed the shore of the lake, and there were lots of pretty trees, bridges, and rock formations.
After leaving the park, we went to yet another designated shopping stop, this time, a pearl shop. We tasted tea made from pearl powder, tested creams made from crushed pearls, and also plucked some seed pearls that were growing in an oyster. We also saw gold pearls, which are quite unique but also super expensive. We did pick up some bracelets for souvenirs, my first purchase the entire trip!
From the pearl shop we drove to Suzhou and went straight to lunch at Choyers Restaurant, which, coincidentally, is attached to a silk factory. Can you guess where we went after lunch?
Oranginator orange drink
Tasty shrimp with heads
Sauteed cabbage
Sour tomato soup with potatoes and carrots
Deep fried fish with sweet and sour sauce
Sauteed lettuce
Sweet red bean soup
Pieces of chicken
Beef with onions
Scrambled eggs with tomato
Curry potatoes and fishballs
So yes, after lunch, we went into the silk factory. And despite my cynicism, it was actually kind of cool. We saw silkworms eating mulberry leaves and how silk is made from silkworm cocoons, which is just one long thread of silk. We also saw them making silk quilts from twin cocoons, when two worms get wrapped up in one pupal. The larvae are taken out of the cocoon, which is then dipped in water and stretched out, creating a silk panel. When the panels have been stretched multiple times and then dried, they are hand pulled into the size of a quilt. It takes many many layers of these panels to make up a quilt, which is soft and fluffy and almost seems like super delicate cotton. The quilts are supposed to be super warm, and so Josh and I couldn’t resist and ended up buying one to test out.
Inside the silk factory, where the machine is pulling the cocoons into a thread
Whole cocoons on the right, already unspooled cocoons in the bucket on the left (you can see the larvae are still inside)
Stretching out a twin cocoon
Stretching out a panel by hand to make a quilt
See how big the panel has stretched out?
After the silk factory, we went to Lingering Garden, which is one of four classical gardens in Suzhou. It’s not one of the largest ones, but it was still quite beautiful.
Our next stop was Hanshan Temple, which is located next to canal. Suzhou is often called “the Venice of the East” because of the canals that run through the city. We were able to climb one of the towers in the temple, which offered a nice view.
After leaving the temple, we took another long bus ride back into Shanghai. We arrived there at night, just in time for dinner. It was our last dinner with the tour, so they chose a slightly more upscale restaurant for us. It was Zip 18, on the 18th floor of the Bund Riverside Hotel. The food was good but the service was terrible. We had a hard time flagging anyone down, and this was the only place where tea was not free. Nevertheless, it was a bit bittersweet to know that the tour was coming to an end, even though I know we complained a great deal about the meals on this trip.
Fried rice
Soup with egg, ground meat, and cilantro
White shrimp with carrots and cucumber
Mapo tofu
Puffy fishballs wrapped in dough
Salt and pepper fried chicken with peppers
Broccoli cooked with bacon
Beef with onions cooked in a foil packet
Whole steamed fish
Sauteed spinach
After dinner we went to our hotel, the Swissotel Grand. We knew we were going to the Shanghai Expo the next day, so we actually ventured out of our hotel at night and went to a supermarket to pick up some snacks for the Expo. The city was brightly lit, and we saw the firecrackers from the opening ceremonies of the Expo in the distance. The area we were in had tons of shops and restaurants, and it was nice to get out on our own for a short while.
The view from our hotel room
Tags: China