After three weeks of teaching and living in our hotel in Hangzhou, we splurged and went away for the weekend to Suzhou. This city is one of the fastest growing cities in this part of China, if not in all of China. The seat of local government in its province for centuries, and a center for commerce and the production of silk and brocade, it is now also a major center for contemporary industrial development. Because of its long history of prosperity, good South China climate, and canal system, Suzhou attracted wealthy families, poets, governors and administrators to build their personal retreats here. Homes within large walled areas were transformed by the most amazing craftspeople and artists into gardens, sometimes deeply contemplative, fantastical, family oriented or spiritual. Over the centuries (founded in BC), there have been destructive forces again and again in the city, but Suzhou retained its core historic district in downtown around many of these gardens. Some were restored a couple hundred years ago, others just in the last century. Some remained private up until fairly recently. Now they are open to the public, some for hefty fees in season, others remain just a $3 entry fee. A city built entirely with a canal system crisscrossed by streets, the old city remains a marvelous weaving of truly historic and newly emerging. The Suzhou Museum is a beautiful example of contemporary possibilities realized with a deep awareness of the soul within the Chinese cultural relics it houses. The first structure is in an ancient building, housing cultural folk life artifacts, and the second structure (separated by the Garden Museum) by I. M. Pei, (born in Suzhou but schooled in the US and a US naturalized citizen, 98 years old at the time of this writing) is a remarkable homage with contemporary spirit. The collection is precise, incredibly representative of some of the most ancient examples and exquisite.
To see all of this, we took the high speed train from Hangzhou station (returning to Hangzhou East station). It took less than 1.5 hours. For most of that time we were glued to the window, watching planted land zip past but mostly new housing districts from 40 years ago half demolished and replaced by 20 year old developments that are truly dwarfed by the new megalithic structures sprouting in large groups and clumps– as many as 20 at a time of each variety as far as the eye can see until they vanish in the hazy smudge of horizon. We have yet to fathom what this means, except that it clearly offers a lot of employment, and at some level forces people out of the small scale communities putting them into these new enormous stacked arrangements.
As soon as we stepped off the train we were amazed by the vastness of the station, the enormous number of people, the endless feeling of the place. We came into the main section of the station and were approached several times by people offering us boat rides and maps. We negotiated for a “map in English” paying 6 instead of 15, to find later that they sell for 2 in shops away from tourist areas. We headed for the 178 bus to take us to our hotel area, and luckily met a young English-capable electrical engineer waiting for the same bus. He said he was also going to the Museum area and would take us to our hotel using his Chinese map system. Truly, without Baire we would not have found our hotel, unless our own GPS was working and even that would have been tricky. He helped us check in, and we agreed to meet for dinner. Our hotel was not worth noting, except that it was part of a major chain of hotels of probably “economy” level, and ¾ of it was completely under construction/renovation. Our hall way was the only livable one, from what we could see, and perhaps 8 rooms were available before the curtain hanging across the hallway and the total destruction on the other side of that! We didn’t mind the noise since we immediately headed out to explore. It seemed a lousy hotel to us, but we got a feeling it might be a quite ordinary one for local tourists if it was intact. (We did actually sleep okay on a very hard mattress by putting one comforter over one mattress and sleeping on top of that. Perhaps it helped us wake so early, which was a good thing!)
A few steps and we were along a lovely canal. A couple blocks in another direction and we were at the very famous Humble Administrator’s Garden, and the Suzhou Museum. Every one else was also there, long lines, many groups with microphones, and again the approaches for boat rides and other tourist attractions. We turned and went back to the canal. Walking quietly along the streets that either lined one side of the canal, or crossing over them, we saw an ancient way of life happening in the present tense. A woman washing her hair in a basin outside in early morning, a man squatting on the wall by the canal spitting his tooth-brushing water into the canal, men and women hauling water up from the stone wells and washing clothing or shoes; mops being wrung out into the canal; clothes drying everywhere in the sun, across streets, strung on trees, hung from lines everywhere. Dogs, quiet and observant, here and there. A man plucking, draining, chopping and selling fresh chickens on one corner, a family setting up their kitchen to sell noodle lunches on the street. Tofu sizzling on open grills, and vendors setting up for the day.
Everywhere evidence of real people living real lives amidst the tourist madness just a few blocks away. Early in the morning, even those tourist streets had people hanging mops from nails in the trees, and hauling water from the sidewalk well as the bus came and went picking people up and dropping people off.
We decided to steer clear the first afternoon of the Humble Administrator’s Garden, imagining that we would go early in the morning; and spent the day walking. Dinner of authentic local noodles that Baire had researched, also known for their starchy kind of sweet that Baire called “cakes” though they were chewy glutinous substances bearing no resemblance to our cake. The next day we chose to go to the Couples Retreat Garden, a bit removed from the main hubbub, and walked around from 6:30-7:30AM until it opened A very beautiful place, with an East Garden and a West Garden, and special places for viewing the moon, for practicing the Tao, for study, or for serving guests. Each part containing scholar rocks (made in formations), special plantings, amazing stone worked grounds, incredible wood carved screens and windows, furnishings, marbles, paintings, everything genuine and intricate. Peering through from here to there, the views invited calm, a sense of peace. And then the tour groups arrived with there microphones! We were so grateful that we had a few minutes before they arrived and they moved fast, so we could tuck in somewhere quiet until they left an area, and pretty much have it to ourselves.
We left our bag at the hotel and went to the Suzhou Museum, the Cultural Life section in the old building and the main collection of artifacts – porcelain, embroidery, carvings of all kinds, paintings, etc. and a contemporary exhibition – in the new building designed by I.M.Pei. The structures are separated by the Garden Museum, an endless feeling group of rooms, courtyards, intimate spaces in various styles. We took it all in with great delight. Each part having something lovely and refreshing about it. We had seen a huge line to get in the new section of the Museum – all of this is free to the public – and decided to think about whether we wanted to go while we waited in line. It moved along fairly quickly and we were so glad we didn’t just walk away. What a wonderful experience of seeing the gardens, then the incredible materials and human skills present in this place over the centuries, combined with the architecture of the old and new. Pei’s sensitivity to light, space, and movement of people and view is truly perfect in this structure.
We squeezed in a little shopping before collecting our bag, meeting Baire for a quick lunch and bus 202 back to the train station. The silk shops were beautiful, some schlock but also some truly gorgeous. And we found a small artisans shop of father and son, the father a master brush maker for ink painting and calligraphy, and the son following the tradition of maker but in the realm of fan bones (the bamboo or wooden parts of the fan). This was so delightful, and truly artistry in present day that reflects some part of the core of Chinese art.
We left our friend Baire at the train station, where he was meeting a friend before his own return to Shanghai where he had just started working as a project manager following his many years of undergraduate and graduate work in England. He urged us to see his hometown of Xi”an if we return, saying that it is quite famous for the Terra Cotta Warriors, but that the air quality is also not very good.
We watched on the train, again stupefied by the intensity of the development going on in China, mixed with a few sections of older farm land, half demolished housing, and larger scale farms and nurseries for the incredible quantity of landscaping materials – shrubs and trees – that we see along nearly all the main streets of Hangzhou. It struck both of us how often we saw a solitary figure in the landscape – walking a road, in a field, in a side vegetable garden, working on a construction site. We also watched the interactions on the train, where it seems some people have assigned seats and others don’t. (We did.) So people sit in any vacant seat – or take a seat next to a friend regardless of their assigned seat. Then, someone with that seat gets on and there is a steady shifting and negotiating, with no malice or ego. Either the usurper simply won’t move and tells the rightful ticketholder to take their assigned seat somewhere else in exchange, or, if they don’t have an assigned seat, they rise and float looking for the next available space. Several people floated for the whole trip, sitting and rising again and again – even a family with a very young child floated like this. A young woman sells Haagen Das cups of ice cream up and down the aisle, and the train personnel push carts with expensive beverages along as well.
What a great weekend! It was warm and sunny, with the clearest sky we’ve seen yet, and we managed to wander, self-sufficient for the most part, and enjoy everything about it. Met at the station in Hangzhou by one of Rob’s students and one of our host’s employees, we were informed that we were having dinner with our host. Our plan had been to take these two young guys out to dinner at a local place, but we wound up once again at a large round table with lots of vegetable dishes provided among the fish dishes, and a little bit of English provided by a former student who would be driving us home. Mostly, we sat a bit glassy eyed listening and watching the play of Chinese social life among two gallery managers, and two art professors. Our driver turned out to be a novice, and it was fortunate that one professor came along with us and coached her the whole way. We also nearly ran out of gas (!!) but she managed that too. We were so grateful to get “home” to our little corner on campus. Tomorrow it will be our laundry hanging out to dry.
