The second locale on my tour schedule in China is the historically significant city of Suzhou, a city famed for its extensive waterways and canals and often called the Venice of the East. With just an afternoon in Suzhou the standout activity for me was the Lingering Garden, a Unesco World Heritage site and one of the finest classical garden in China.
The Lingering Garden delivered an experience worth committing to memory, walking through the purposefully designed grounds I marvelled at the tortured rock features and striking plantings that are used to create several different scenes. Water features throughout the garden and is utilised magnificently to create character, the beautiful carp and the occasional bobbing turtle adding their own significant symbolism to the garden.
Each garden scene is interrupted and enhanced by gorgeous and delicate buildings, I’m told these buildings are a requirement for any Chinese formal garden, they are used to break the larger garden into a series of smaller interconnected pleasure gardens. Within each of these smaller pleasure gardens a scene is created, each designed specifically for an entirely different purpose or season.
I can’t say that the style and form of the classical Chinese garden appeal to my own preferred design aesthetic, but I am unable to deny their inherent and compelling beauty.
The remainder of my time in Suzhou was spent near, or on a small stretch of Suzhou’s canals. The rejuvenated historic neighbourhood bordering the canal showed what could be done with these quaint little canal side houses once the inhabitants had moved elsewhere. It was interesting to see the nearby undeveloped canal side properties, these properties had proximity to the tourist draw of the rejuvenated homes, creating business opportunities, yet they still looked a bit grim.
This canal section I saw reminded me that the Venice of the East tag gets bandied around far too often, I certainly didn’t see the grandeur of Venice proper, just some busy waterways.
Being a guest on an organised tour is a strange experience for me, somewhat bitter sweet. I can appreciate the benefits as I see more locations and undertake more activities in a shorter time than I would if I travelled independently. But surrendering control of my meals is a hard pill to swallow, considering food is one of my cultural focal points when visiting another country. Sadly I have resigned myself to a week of forgettable food while on tour, the few communal meals so far on tour have been acceptable but not great. With meals served communally to the group I didn’t want take photos of this fairly basic food, I suspect my fellow tour group companions may find me taking photos of yet another collection of stir fried food a little weird.
I quite like the way the itinerary is organised by the tour company, with free time built into the itinerary to enable each guest to explore and feel connected to their surroundings a little more, for me that means walking around and trying to eat things. Free time in Suzhou is spent near the canal and luckily for me the rejuvenated canal neighbourhoods, besides being quite attractive, had some food to try.
The steamed red bean rice cake was quite weird, with a dry, almost gritty, sponge like texture. I found the colour of the cake to be the most appealing thing, I can’t say I enjoyed the eating experience as a whole, my initial thought had been for a sweet snack, yet this didn’t deliver.
The durian ice cream block was a great follow up item to have after the strangely unsweet red bean cake. I love durian and found it impossible to pass by this ice cream, I was pleasantly surprised how well the delicious durian flavour was conveyed into the block, with each bite delivering a full flavoured and rich mouthful of sumptuous flavour.
I did feel a little sorry for my fellow tour mates later, as the durian flavour did repeat on me a little later, I should have invested in some chewing gum as well.
Gustatory travels 