Yesterday I went to a town about an hour away called Changshu, I went with a group of Expat’s that had been invited to test drive a tour. I’ve gone on many of these trips since I’ve been here and yesterday’s trip was not too bad. The sun was shining as I strolled up to the meeting point and low and behold there be many a foreigner, a gaggle of them or is it a flock? I knew a few of the faces and nodded morning as I arrived.
I was last on and got the front seat, how marvellous was that? As it turned out we actually had a good bus driver and so the drive was very enjoyable for a change. Our first port of call was at a Qipao factory, what is a a Qipao I here you say?, well have a look below, it’s the name of the dress that the girls are wearing.
After we all had a bit of fun trying long dresses and the like we headed off down the street to an old house of a famous scholar. Once you enter through the front door the design and decor is much the same as many other such places I have visited over the years and so I leave the group and go for a wander and leave them to it.
Lunch is next on the agenda and I’m afraid there are no pictures because we were all really hungry and when the food came out it was just hoovered up. The food we had here was absolutely delicious and I think it was because there were only two fish dishes and the food was all very “foreign friendly” The hot and sour fish soup was great, the pork, the radish, vegetables, in fact everything was great.
We waddled off to our next port of call which was a mini “Great Wall” Changshu boasts a very good and complete section of wall which is surprisingly steep and some of the fatty foreigners did struggle quite a bit when they started to defy gravity and walk up the stairs and when we all reached the top many of them bought ice-cream just to make sure their thighs didn’t shrink too much from the climb.
The last port of call was a private library which had been rebuilt and of course this is where many of these cultural days out take a turn for the worse. Authenticity is important and at times when you arrive at these “olde” places the smell of paint is fresh and everything is shiny and new, but I think we were all getting a bit tired and we were looking forward to the promise of a cup of tea. Not only did we get a cup of tea, but we got moon-cake, fruit and many other calorie filled delicacies to top up the thighs once more and lots of green tea and I got a doggy bag………………I felt fat and ready for a nap.
At one time Changshu had over 100 private libraries. This part of Jiangsu Province is famous for producing many scholars over the years and they have gone on to become officials at the highest positions in government and so I understand why they took us here to introduce the history to us, but sometimes the renovations leave nothing of the original structures.
It was an interesting day out and I got to meet another few foreigners of Suzhou. I will come back to Changshu again and maybe explore this city a little bit more and see what it has to offer.