Small World, Big City: Luzhi and the Garden of the Humble Administrator

Yesterday I had a wonderful day by myself in Luzhi. It's not as much of a tourist attraction, so there weren't as many people, especially since I went fairly early. It's an old town, with cobblestone streets and narrow alleys. The roofs are tiled and black. I wonder if they were always black, because at the Nanjing museum, there was a section on how house roofs used to be yellow and red, but because of the Japanese air raids, people were instructed to paint them black to make it harder to bomb from above. It was nice to walk through the little alleys, with few disturbances, and along the green canals. Luzhi is more like Venice, while Suzhou is more like Amsterdam; the big difference though is the color of the water. In this area, it's green. Not a dirty looking green, but green like grass. Maybe that means it's dirty though, I'm not an expert on water quality.

When I arrived, the first street had a lot of people making snacks. They gave out free samples, which were really good. "I'll come back and buy later, it's heavy so I don't want to carry it around all day."

The shopowner said, "nobody ever comes back."

I actually did later, and bought two items from her. I spent the day wandering around and eating, which is the best kind of day. For lunch I had a steamed whole fish, and some vegetables and mushrooms. Fish here is very good.

Suzhou's specialty is silk and pearls, so there were several stores selling both. I bought a few strands of pearls for about five dollars each, and a nicer one for about 12. After meandering along the stone bridges and a small garden, I made my way back to Suzhou.

I got there a bit before five, so I was able to squeeze in a visit to the Humble Administrator's Garden, which was very impressive--water lilies and pavilions everywhere. After this garden, I don't think I need to see any other gardens. Many stone carvings, and beautiful walkways. The gardens here have shapes and images in their walkways. One popular shape is a coin, the other is a flower. You are supposed to step on the coin, and then the flower, for wealth. Other images include fish, frogs, and other aquatic animals. There were a lot of mosquitoes, otherwise I would have stayed longer--since it was closer to closing, it was far less crowded.

Afterwards, I went to Ping Jiang street, and older street which is kind of like a night market. I was tired though, so only walked down one street before going home.

I am writing this from a tour bus to Tongli. I am already regretting going with a tour again, but I figured it was so much cheaper and easier. The entrance to Tongli is 100 Rmb, while it will cost me 20 for roundtrip travel to the bus station, and some money for ticket to Tongli. With the tour, everything is only 80. The tour guide asked me, "in the US, what do you call people who buy tickets for cheaper, and resell them at a higher price?"

"Scalpers," I said.

"Yeah that's what I am," he said. "This is great, now I know my profession in English, I'll tell people that."

"Well," I said, "being a scalper usually isn't considered a good thing. Probably better if you say you buy and resell."

The bus is delayed because another bus broke down, and they are trying to figure out what to do with the passengers from that bus.