Day 3 - Shell China Trip

Day 3
I woke up yet again to bright sun shine, did my morning thing and had another bad hotel breakfast.


Our destination today was the province of Suzhou.

First stop on the list was Wuzhen, the "Water City". On the way, I finally had some entertainment in the form of mp3s because I found out that my PDA could be charged in the hotels so I didn't have to conserve battery power. The travelling wasn't so boring this way.

On the road to Suzhou, some people dressed in faded army pants and open jackets stopped the bus on the highway. I thought that they wanted to rob us. One of the other tour guys' went to hide his camera while I did the same. Luckily though, we found that it was just that we weren't allowed to take a road because of the buses' size. We weren't taking that road fortunately. They stopped us cuz it only looked like such. Chalk another one up to diminishing corruption in China I thought.

We stopped for a toilet break. The concept was really nice. It involved peeing on glass panels and behind the transparent glass panels were plants. I couldn't take a picture here because there were a number of people using the urinal and I was still quite happy with Life in general.

At another stop on another day however, I did manage to take a snapshot(see above). The differences were that the urinals at this stop didn't have that short wall separating us from the urinals as compared to the one in this photo that I took at a different rest stop and the plants at the first stop were not of the hanging variety.

We finally reached Wuzhen and this time round I took my coat with me(albeit I had to rush back in the bus to get it). After yesterday's off and on rain, after eating dinner and walking to the bus, this strong gust of wind caught me off guard and took my breathe away. It made me feel weak so I opted for the safe choice.


The villagers here, still use bicycles. This one is pretty rusted but looks like its still used frequently.

Bear with me while I dump the rest of my photos here.

Man walking with kid	Princess' Bed
Synopsis of Clothing	Window in a wall
Alley	Le Commies

While walking thru the town, I soon begain to smell the "stench" of Rice Wine. Soon enough, I found a distillery and a stash of vats. The sheer number of these vats was amazing. A villager there was giving out samples in small cups but I didn't want any. After tasting (and SMELLING) yesterday's rice wine, I thought that that was enough.

There were more stashes of these vats in other places in town.

The villagers in this town also make their own fabrics.

We were on the way to the "boat ride" when I took these shots. These houses, unlike Malaysian Kampongs, and more like Venice, are built on stone and cement bases.


Our boat man was singing the whole time. I didn't really understand what he was saying. But I knew that he was conscious of how we were reacting to his singing. At one point, his voice began to trail off so I turned to see what was happening but then his voice returned. lol.

After alighting from the boat which brought us to the exit, we went for lunch which was at a restaurant about 400 metres from where we were. Only the Duck appetiser and the Pork were any good. Well, the meaty part of the pig at least. Here's a picture of the Pork.

Next in line was the Singapore Industrial Park in Suzhou. On the way, we noticed that the roads were built around a river. Meaning a river is what separates the roads travelling in opposite directions. A river runs through it is another way to describe it.

Suzhou apparently has a lot of rivers and a foreigner was employed by the Chinese Government to design a road system that would complement these rivers.

We soon reached the Industrial Park area. One can tell the difference between this area and other areas. The hedges and bushes lining the road are neatly trimmed and placed a-la-Singapore and everything looks much more cleaner and less cluttered.

The story of the Singapore Industrial Park is this. The Singapore Government, run by the PAP, invested a certain amount of money in China to develop an Industrial Park. But after all the infrastructure was built and the project was almost complete, the Chinese Government took the money that the Singapore Government had paid them and made their own Industrial Park just next to Singapore's. They offered lower prices than that offered by the Singapore Government. Singapore lost out of course and if I'm not wrong, pulled out from the deal.


Our local Suzhou guide was waiting for us there. Since there wasn't much to see, we left for this place that boasted a padoda that had been standing for over 2000 years.

There was this cute little boy with red rosy cheeks just in front of the pagoda's entrance. I noticed that the boy's bum was showing. Thinking it was just a tear in the dude's jumpers, I didn't take any pictures.

Exposed Bums Again	Neapolitan Ice Cream

After touring the place, buying some toys for my little sister and learning that this guide could speak a "litterh engrish" (sic), we went back to the bus and headed of oo an area in Suzhou that apparently had historical and cultural value. The street, QiLiShan Tang Culture Street is set amongst some of the oldest buildings in Suzhou.


These buildings, our guide explained all had white walls and black roofs.

Our guide also explained on the way to the place that there are 3 types of women in Suzhou. Those good at sewing, those good at cooking, and those good at making silk. Our guide was a lady FYI. She then went on to explain that the reason for their good skin complexion (I just thought it looked OK though) was because they eat pig skin everyday.

I refer to a previous picture.

Yucks!!

The Suzhou guide recommended that we try the fried dumplings there so we did and it tasted really good. At just 40RMB for 8 pieces, that equated to about S$0.10 per piece.

You see that metal pot in the picture with the ladel in it? The amount of oil required to fill that one up to about a quarter of it's height is what is used in that big black flat pan with the wooden cover which the guy in the picture is using to fry the dumplings.

This dinner saw wayang singers with their chinese guitars and their shrill and nasal voices coming to our tables to entertain us. We also had, as one of the dishes, scallops on a shell that looked almost similar to Shell's Logo. How appropriate. lol

After dinner, we then headed off to a "Mall Street" i.e. a big street with branded and a few "branded" shops lining the street. Sorta their version of a mall I guess. Some of their stuff was really cheap. Like my mom's shoes which were going for like only 40 or so RMB (S$8).

Along this mall street, we encountered this beggar carrying her child around and asking for money. We had been told not to donate anything to these beggars not only just because we could not tell the veracity of their situation, but also because it would mean that all the beggars would throng that area once they found out that the people there are very generous.

The funny thing was at the end of it all, we encountered this lady again, this time selling flowers with her little boy no where in sight. lol. Pretty funny eh? Would've been more effective if she sold flowers with her son in tow.

We went back to yet another hotel after that and we hurriedly tried to put ourselves to sleep again. The wake up call was 7.30 this time. That was a little hard cuz this hotel room had absolutely no windows. But I managed to.

That was the end of Day 3.

Part 3 of 7