Today we flew from Guilin to Shanghai. Our tour guide, Daisy, met us at the airport and we immediately drove to the city of Suzhou. Suzhou was once the silk capital of China and one sixth of China’s silk is produced in this city today. We visited the Garden of the Master of Fishing Nets and learned that being a fisherman in ancient China was a pretty good job to have.
Traditional Chinese gardens always have four elements: rocks, water, buildings, and plants. The walls are often left white in order to serve as a simple backdrop for the garden, just like a painting starts off with white paper and then color is added. The Whereas western gardens are usually viewed all at once, the Chinese gardens are meant to be discovered bit by bit as one meanders through the various sections. We were amused to learn that a large limestone structure in the garden was put together using sticky rice.
Val went to sleep early because she had not slept much the night before, and Jessica went next door for a Thai massage (FYI: Jessica usually gets a couple more hours of sleep a day/night than Val due to her amazing ability to nap anywhere). The Thai massage involved pulling, walking on Jessica’s back, popping, wiggling, pounding, and other super relaxing-sounding methods.
Traditional Chinese gardens always have four elements: rocks, water, buildings, and plants. The walls are often left white in order to serve as a simple backdrop for the garden, just like a painting starts off with white paper and then color is added. The Whereas western gardens are usually viewed all at once, the Chinese gardens are meant to be discovered bit by bit as one meanders through the various sections. We were amused to learn that a large limestone structure in the garden was put together using sticky rice.
Val went to sleep early because she had not slept much the night before, and Jessica went next door for a Thai massage (FYI: Jessica usually gets a couple more hours of sleep a day/night than Val due to her amazing ability to nap anywhere). The Thai massage involved pulling, walking on Jessica’s back, popping, wiggling, pounding, and other super relaxing-sounding methods.
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