Suzhou
Trip Start
Oct 11, 2007
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121
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Trip End
Nov 11, 2009
Suzhou, China
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
leah and i decided to go there for my first weekend back. so tues. morning, i boarded the train and was immediately impressed with everything. suzhou was the china i expected to see when i stepped off the plane. clean and idyllic, it's the china you see whenever you're watching something that takes place here- that's not making a political statement.
we started off the day at the bookworm. it's a local bookstore that has nothing but english books. i was in heaven. it was a cute little place with cushy couches and board games galore. you could easily spend a week in there, browsing the different books and magazines. it had a great indie atmosphere to it. plus the food was good and we were coming back for quiz night.
after spending hours at the bookworm, we headed over to the suzhou museum, my first museum in asia. it was the last thing i.m. pei did before retiring so it was artsy, clean and modern. we got an english headset and were on our way. spent another few hours browsing through the various stuff they had there. it was amazing to see some of the dates on the exhibits. spring and autumn period. oh, that's only from 1500 or so BC! and to see that the pottery still had its original colors and designs. it was all so awe-inspiring. then we relaxed in a pond in the middle of the museum. would highly recommend it!
don't get the english headset though. the woman just read the nameplates and described what the piece was in front of you. "the vase is on a jade onset with...." and the accent was so bad. "PEE low" for pillow. i wasn't sure if it was a joke or not. since it was still in china, i knew it wasn't.
