Today we are off to Suzhou, and small city of 6.4 million
people about 100ks, or half an hour’s train ride from Shanghai. We took the Maglev train in from the airport
and hit 301kph, but this is just a fast train, which isn’t as fast. Well, actually, let’s not split hairs, but we
were doing 276kph on the outward trip and 289kph on the return journey. The ticket for the journey costs about $8
each way, which sounded pretty good value to me.
Suzhou, although a big city, didn’t feel very big, and we
never saw much traffic in the times were were travelling. The city has experienced phenomenal growth
over the last 25-30 years, going from a city of about half a million, to the
6.4 million inhabitants today. The itinerary
for the day was visit one of the city’s famous gardens, go to a silk factory
(again), have lunch, go on a canal trip (SuZhou is known as the Venice of the
East), and then go to the Embroidery Research Institute. The day was a bit of a re-hash of stuff we
had done before, so there was nothing that was going to get us too enthused,
other than the train ride. We’ve been to
gardens many times, had seen the whole silk process in Beijing, and Venice is
under no threat from this particular canal.
We were pleased to see a boat doing rubbish collections on the canal,
and the number of apartments and houses on the way out that had solar heating
was also impressive from an environmental perspective. The smog today was quite bad though, although
nothing like what we had experienced in Beijing and Xian.
Our canal trip was on a boat with seating for 32, with just
Anne and I on board. It was about a half
hour trip – out and back – along a long wide canal, with no particular points
of interest en route. The trip to the
embroidery factory was enjoyable, and the skill of the craftswoman was
certainly something to behold. There was
as usual many items on sale, and the guide ensured us that the price was
appreciating by 10% per year. He showed
us one piece that had been on sale 3 years ago for $10,000 3 years ago, and now
it was on sale for about $14,000 – highlighting the 10% appreciation. I wondered, if it hadn’t been sold in those 3 years, if it was
possibly available for $5,000, and had infact depreciated by half over the time. As I didn’t have any particular interest in
buying the piece, or have $5,000 in my pocket, even if I did, I kept my views
on price appreciation to myself.
The highlight of the day was being left alone in the SuZhou
train station with time to work out how the system worked. This was the highlight because while it has
been great having guides everywhere, there were a lot of things that we could
have done ourselves. Having a little bit
of time at the train station gave us time to figure out how hard it would be if
we were left there by ourselves. Because
there is a reasonable amount of English signage, we figured out that it
wouldn’t be too hard to organise ourselves.
Also knowing that all you accommodation can be booked on the internet
and that most restaurants in China have picture menus means that you can cover
off two of the main tourist activities without too much hassle.
I think I have finally figured out the Chinese traffic
signals and road rules. If you are
facing a red light, you have options. If
you are facing a green light, you have options, and you may or may not have
more options that someone who is facing a red light. If you are on a road with arrows indicating
the direction, the cars, trucks and buses will follow the arrows, but scooters
and bicyclists may or may not, depending on where they are trying to get
to. Cars, trucks and buses accept the
scooter and bicyclists right to make things up as it suits them. Lane markings are irrelevant for all road
users. The two major rules of Chinese
road use, are don’t hit anything, and be prepared to concede to everyone. There is no such thing as having the right of
way.
For pedestrians, red or green men, mean virtually nothing,
but may indicate the amount of traffic that will have the potential to run you down. All the above rules that apply to cars,
buses, truck, scooters and cyclists means that you are on your own as soon as
you step off the footpath, so ensure you have eyes in the back of your head and
the bottom of your feet. The main rule
for pedestrians seems to be “do nothing fast, particularly not moving or
changing direction”. If you see a local,
stick to them like glue when you are crossing the road.
Michael our guide in Beijing told us about the importance of
some numbers in Chinese culture, particularly the numbers 6, 8 and 9, which
indicate longevity, wealth and an easy life.
We were amazed on the train to and from SuZhou how many new apartment
buildings had phone numbers made predominantly of those 3 numbers.
Anyway, that’s about it for this trip. We’ve had a great time. The two week timeframe is really great for a
short sharp look around a place and we’ve got a bunch of ideas about other
places we can get to for a shorter timeframe, so are looking forward to more of
these types of holidays in the future.
Ciao,
David & Anne.
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