Tomb Sweeping Day

Today is such a gorgeous Suzhou day!  NOT!  It's overcast and foggy outside, but at least it's a little warmer.  I'm actually wearing a skirt!  I tried riding my bike wearing a skirt this morning and it was an interesting exercise.  Luckily I was wearing tights!  I wonder how I will go once summer comes?  They did predict snow again for next week (yeah I know, a total WHAT THE?), but in typical fashion, the weather report has changed again and now there is no longer snow but it's getting cooler again.  Oh the joys!

So, in China they don't really celebrate Easter, but last Monday we did get a public holiday in the aid of Tomb Sweeping Day.  From what I can gather, this day is a Buddhist day where they honour the spirits of their ancestors and clean their graves and honour their memories I guess.  I don't know how much this tradition is really upheld anymore, but it was great for us to get a day off work.  I loved finally getting two days off work in a row.
 Last Saturday, Matt and I took a group of kids from the centre on an excursion to the new Suzhou Aquarium.  I was looking forward to it, firstly because it's a change from doing normal classes, and secondly because the Aquarium is on Lake Taihu, which is a huge lake bordering Suzhou to the west.  I think it's the third largest lake in China.  See more info here .  It looks as though they are building up the area to be quite a resorty area and it would be a really nice place to go for the weekend or for a holiday if you lived further away.  The lake isn't suitable for swimming though I don't think.  It was interesting seeing new sights that we haven't yet seen.  The Aquarium itself was a bit small and average and we mostly had to chase kids all day to make sure they all stayed together.  We then went to a park by the lake where we were expected to play games.  We were told that we would be going to a park, so we thought we would play games like red rover, and we bought frisbees and a couple of balls to play ball games.  When we got to the park, it was more of a garden type park on the edge of the lake, and as it was a long weekend, everyone was out having Chinese style BBQ's!  So, playing games didn't really go down too well with the kids.  Someone had bought their kite and really wanted to fly it, and most of the other kids ended up running off to buy kites too, so in the end the kids all ended up flying kites for about an hour.  They really love their kites!!!  It was a real team effort flying them too.  They day was quite windy, so bad for playing frisbee, but great for flying kites.  We arrived home a bit exhausted.

Group 1 - My group (lining up in height order is quite a Chinese thing)

Group 2 - Matt's Group

Suzhou Ocean Aquarium

Matt taking part in the clown show at the dolphin show

The surrounds of Tai Lake

Kids flying a kite in "the park" at Lake Tai

Chinese BBQ (LOL)

We went home to relax and ate afternoon snacks as we were hungry before heading downtown.  It was a long weekend and we wanted to enjoy it!!!  We tossed up the idea of going for dinner somewhere but as we'd just eaten we weren't really feeling that hungry.  Once we got downtown, Matt was complaining that his stomach felt funny.  We walked up Shiquan St (Bar St) browsing and eventually ended up at Bookworm Cafe.  Shiquan St is a major tourist / bar street in Suzhou that is popular with tourists and expats.  There are heaps of cute stores and bars and some 'special bars' if you know what I mean, amongst a few restaurants and cafes.  Bookworm Cafe is just off the main street is a back laneway.  It's an English book store / library type place that also serves food and beverages and is popular with foreigners and locals alike.  They also hold regular events there - solo artists, trivia nights etc.  Matt and I stopped off here for a beer and a pat of their resident cat.  Afterwards, I bought fried rice off a street vendor outside.  Street vendor fried rice is pretty good.  We were then going to catch a bus home but I really needed to use a bathroom and we weren't sure if we'd missed the last bus, so what a perfect excuse to pop somewhere else for another beer.  We popped into Pulp Fiction (Aussie Bar), which serves VB and Cascade Light beers (what an AWESOME selection of Aussie beers!, not!).  They had a soccer game on TV and it was a bit quiet inside when we first went in, but more people came as it got later (even though it was already just past 10pm).  We finished our beers and then caught a taxi home.

We slept in on Sunday and then once we got going, decided that we wanted to discover Suzhou's Pet Market.  It is located in a street off Guanqian Pedestrianized Shopping Street (which is what we would refer to as a mall).  We found the market but it was really disappointing.  The animals were all crowded into cages / tanks and they were dirty and smelt.  They had lots of birds and fish and some dogs.  It was just sad really.  They had a few turtles too but nothing really interesting and exotic like the Weekend Market in Bangkok.  We went to the pet market in Shanghai a few weeks ago when I went to pick up my boots and even that Market was better.  The market also had some plants which were pretty cool.  We kept walking up the street before turning and heading towards the zoo.  It was interesting seeing this part of the city as we hadn't walked this way before.  We got to the zoo but it was nearly 4pm and the zoo closing at 5, so it wasn't really worth going in.  There were heaps of people about though and street vendors selling balloons and turtles / rabbits / guinea pigs and fairy floss!  We saw about 4 or 5 people with pet rabbits that day!  We turned back and walked along Ping Jiang Rd, which is a very old road in the middle of the 'old city' following one of the canals.  We had been for a boat ride along part of this canal, but the best part of the canal was what we saw this day.  I think boat rides here would cost alot more.  It's a cobbled road with no cars allowed, but of course there are bikes and e-bikes and rickshaw things everywhere!  We had walked along here on our first night in Suzhou, but it was really nice to see it by day and when the shops were open.  

Ping Jiang Canal - you can go for little boat rides, and the 'driver' might even sing for you (for a tip, of course!)

A cute looking tea shop / cafe

Ping Jiang

One of the many boats along Ping Jiang Canal (and one of the many cute bridges!)

Interesting art works

There are heaps of cute tea houses / coffee shops and cute boutiques and art stores and a few restaurants etc.  I stumbled across a store with cute handmade bags and other goods and maybe I will go back and buy one another day.  We decided to get a coffee after walking past a few places and kept walking without seeing another decent coffee shop.  So to avoid us walking with no purpose, I said we'd go to the next place we came across.  Well ... we came across a place with a sign out the front saying 'Beer .. microbrewery' ... and Matt was interested, so in we went.  It ended up being a fair trade organic cafe known as the Green Room.  We sat upstairs and got interesting views of rooftops and up the street and along the canal.  

View from the upstairs window of the 'Green Room'

View from a different perspective

We didn't see any mention of beer on the menu but we did have really awesome cappuccinos and chocolate bread.  The coffees were made from Australian organic milk!  The place had a really great atmosphere and people were sitting around playing cards / boardgames and they had a selection of books to read etc.  Kind of similar to bookworm cafe I guess but with an organic / fair trade twist.   If we had looked more closely before going in, we should have realised that 'organic' meant 'expensive' but oh well!  It was Easter and a long weekend and the coffee was probably one of the best we've had.  It cost no more than what we'd pay for a coffee from any of the american coffee chains in china.  As we were paying I saw chocolate on the counter .... dark chocolate with MINT!!!  YUM!!  Of course it was fair trade / organic / whatevz else, so we bought it .... being Easter and all!  Of course it was expensive ... and of course you could barely taste any mint, but it was still good and guilt free.  We ended up hopping on a bus downtown and heading towards Li Gon Di.  Ligondi is an area where they have built man-made islands across Jinji Lake.  These islands are all interconnected by little bridges and the area is full of expensive bars and restaurants.  

Looking east over Jinji Lake towards the Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Centre and the Giant Ferris Wheel Park

Li Gon Di

Li Gon Di

It's a 'night life' area for the wealthy I guess.  There are no buses that go through the area, only cars and taxis or bikes etc.  You can catch a bus to close by and walk though.  There is also an outlet shopping mall there which I went to one day but it's pretty average and there was noone else there!  I ended up walking that day all the way to walmart which was about a 5km walk in drizzling rain and wind.  It was an interesting walk around the far side of the lake though.  Well the downtown side of the SIP.  Anyways .... so last Sunday, Matt thought he knew of a place which advertised a roast dinner, but the place was deserted at 7pm.  We decided to keep walking and came across the well known German Brewhouse which the guys at work talk about highly.   We ended up stopping here for dinner.  Matt had the pork knuckle and I had a selection of german sausages.  Matt's pork knuckle was HUGE (and I think he felt it later on) and my sausages were ... well the sorriest looking german sausages I've ever seen but they were tasty.  The beers there are apparently brewed onsite and are german style beers and Matt considers them 'real beers' as they aren't half-strength chinese style.  It ended up being our most expensive dinner to date, but it was a long weekend and we didn't care!  At least we could walk and catch the bus home.


Monday, we slept in a little but tried to get up and going.  We thought about going to Tiger Hill but then thought that if it truly was Tomb Sweeping Day, Tiger Hill, being a Tomb thing, probably wasn't the best idea.  We headed off to another temple in the SND and then thought we'd check out the SND as we hadn't explored there yet.  We caught a couple of buses to the temple area and looked at a pretty cool pagoda with a huge bell that people could ring.  




We then walked over to the temple area but it looked quiet, even though there were people everywhere.  We decided to give the temple itself a miss, but right near it was the Fengqiao Scenic and Historic Area.  This area was built years ago as a military position outside of the city walls.  It's a little island and had some pretty cool stuff to look at and backs on to the Grand Canal. 

We were fascinated watching boats come and go up the canal empty, and then full of stuff, looking as though they could nearly sink.  I wonder if the canal is like this all the way to Beijing? (I think this is the canal that goes all the way to Beijing?).   We spent a few hours wandering around here and then walked to an alley / road near the CMD Kindy that we teach at which is the most awesome market type street.  I wish we had a street like this near us.  It has heaps of food vendors / a big fresh indoor market and other stalls and a few simple restaurants.  We stopped and bought some pork buns and this pancakey type thing that had egg and maybe schallots on it?  I've eaten it before and it's pretty tasty!  We walked from there back to the main road and caught a bus back to Shi Lu Road.  Matt read about a night market in this area.  We walked through a small park with people sitting and getting haircuts, random goods for sale on rugs and old men playing card games.  We wandered around a bit and weren't sure where the markets really were.  The area was like a mall area and seemed as if it were the heart of the CMD.  We stopped and got a coffee and 85 degrees (a chinese bakery chain that makes ok baked goods and has cheap and decent coffee!!).  We then crossed the road and found shop / stall type things that could possibly have been the market that we were looking for?  It was pretty average and we didn't stop to look at much.  We walked from here back to find the bus and found a kid going to the toilet on the front steps of a shop.  Kids here mustn't wear toilet training underpants.  Instead they wear pants (like track pants) with a slit in the back so that you can see their bums.  If they need to go to the toilet (doesn't matter what the need), their parents just get them to squat and away they go it seems.  I find it really gross and indecent.  Guys here take a leak wherever they feel the need and Matt thinks he saw an old lady road worker / gardener / sweeper pull her dacks down in the field next door to our apartment complex one day!!  errgh!  Anyways, we stumbled across this awesome alleyway full of food vendors and restaurants and neon lights.  I wish we had someone like that close by too!  We caught the bus back to downtown and then caught a bus home and ate noodles for dinner.  It's interesting that the SND is just the other side of downtown and it seems to 'asian' in comparison to the SIP.  Out here is so new.  They keep building places and they are so new and so grand but they're like ghost towns sometimes.  Maybe in time this area will become more populated and develop more of an atmosphere.  


So that was how we spent our Easter weekend in Suzhou.  I think that we saw more of Suzhou in that weekend than we have in the whole six weeks that we've lived here now!


xoxo