We started the day by getting a taxi to the silk museum. Suzhou, turns out, used to be the silk capitol of China. Before going into the museum we stopped at a tiny restaurant (more like two tables in the middle of the street) and got breakfast: Youtiao (literally meaning “oil stick”, basically it’s deep fried dough), tea egg, and soy milk. It was excellent.
The silk museum was a lot of fun. Especially the section dedicated to the production process of silk.
We stared at this for a while until we realized that the worms were real.
This section ends in a room that occupies some old fashion looms and about four women were actively weaving silk on them. These fascinating, complex machines are slowly turning into my new obsession.
Outside the silk museum we noticed a very tall pagoda. We decided to check it out.
The pagoda is located at the heart of the Beita Bao'en temple. We walked around and then climbed the damn thing just to find some air polluted, disappointing view of the city.
From there we took a taxi to the Humble Administrator’s Garden. The area is very touristy, and a lot of little old Chinese ladies try to shove tour flyers into peoples’ hands. I practiced some Chinese and yelled “bu yao! bu yao! bu yao!” (don’t want!) randomly. Before visiting the garden, we sat down in a small restaurant. A heavy white guy with a white goatee and blue eyes, dressed like a Chinese vagabond, came in, sat down at one of the tables, and shortly after burst into a loud conversation with the restaurant owner, in fluent Chinese (brought here as roughly translated by Julia):
- “Do you have baozi?”
- “Yes, of course.”
- “I would like some, then. Do you have beer?”
- “Yes, whatever you see on the shelf.”
- “But they are warm, I want a cold one.”
- “It’s too cold for cold beer, don’t you think?”
- “You are very lazy, you know? Instead of standing here and talking to me about beer, go make my baozi!”
After our meal we went to the Humble Administrator’s Garden. It’s pretty fancy for such a humble administrator.
Being pretty much the only white guy around, I get a lot of stares. A tiny girl was fascinated by me, and I could see how her dad practiced with her until she was ready to approach me and say “Hello! what is your name?”. I said “Hello! Ni hao!” back which made her the happiest thing on earth, as she started jumping all over the place.
After the garden we went to the Suzhou Museum which is right next to the garden. The museum is a must see in Suzhou - first of all, the architecture is very impressive. The art is really interesting too, especially the calligraphy section.
After an afternoon snack we took a taxi to go to the hotel, but when we passed the old city we asked the driver to drop us off. It’s a really pretty, very touristy area.
We entered some stores. Chinese sales people will follow you around all over the store, even if you try to make it very clear that you don’t need their help. In a silk store, we were followed by a girl who looked a little like that girl from “The Grudge”. Having her follow me around is not what I would call a positive shopping experience.
We got some red bean bubble tea and sat on the bench to drink it. Another boy, approached me. “Hello! It’s nice to meet you!” he recited very carefully to his parents’ content. I went into a public bathroom to pee, and as I threw my bubble tea cup to the trash, an old cleaner guy started yelling at me in Chinese. Looking back, I think he thought I threw the cup into the squat toilet. I didn’t know what to do so I said “Slicha, bijo, slicha!” (Hebrew/Georgian: I’m sorry old chap, sorry!) and left quickly.
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