Day 4 - Shell China Trip

Day 4
The breakfast on this day wasn't too bad. The soya bean was a little less watery than at the other hotels and the wantons were not bad. The meat tasted nice(r).

First up today was the Ouyuan(Lotus) Garden. What it really was, was this big mansion with some flowers and ponds and flowers in ponds here and there.

Here you can see part of the mansion. Much of the furniture was removed so if there was ever an ambience to this place, I didn't see it.


In one of the gardens, I spotted this. At first I thought it was a toilet bowl. What with the shape and it having water below it. Later on though, we found out it was a well.

One of the gardens also had it own mini rock mountain. I snapped a picture of this visitor. My batteries crapped out on me shortly after taking this photo so it took me a while to change 'em hence the lack of pictures after this.


This mansion also had it's own moat so exiting the place requird a short boat ride to reach the perimeter.

Next stop was the Silk Factory. No picture taking was allowed in the factory. They actually show you how they make silk. How they let the silkworms eat Mulberry Leaves and how they grow the trees such that the leaves that the worms munch on are of a high quality.

Then they showed us how to differentiate between real silk and the fake one. The smell of the burnt materials each produced unique smells.

They showed us the life cycle of the worm which also included it being super huge just before it turned into a pupa.

They then showed us how they separated the cocoons that had 2 larvae in them and those that had only one.

They took the single occupied ones and then by dunking them in water, the rock hard shell of the cocoon would soften up and then the edge of a strand of silk would appear. The worker hooked up this strand with a brush and tied it on to a spool that winded the entire single strand of silk that makes a cocoon.

According to the factory guide, on a good day in summer, the length of the strand in a cocoon can reach up to 1200 metres.

For the double occupied ones, they warmed them in water as well until soft. Then they ripped the cocoon open and stretched it over an inverted U metal stand. After putting a few layers of this on the stand, they moved it all to another bigger stand.

Then other workers, took this stuff and held it by four corners, and proceeded to stretch it out onto a rectangular table. Doing the same till there were a number of layers of this stretched out silk, they then sewed it all up in a bag and voila, you have a quilt.

My mom bought four of these quilts at around S$80. We got a free silk handkerchief because of our purchase.

For lunch, we headed to a restaurant about 200 metres from where the silk factory was. The lunch this time was a little better.

As always, there was always the fatty pork dish.

Our next stop was in Nanjing so we said goodbye to our local Suzhou guide and set off. It was to be a 4 hour bus ride.

This time round, they played "The Myth" on the bus' 20 inch LCD screen. Truth be told, this helped me keep my sanity. Long bus rides in a cramped space with no sound from the sleeping passengers can be conducive to losing one's sanity.

We stopped for a toilet break halfway through. There was a convenience store at the rest stop and many of us stocked up with plenty of food. My family personally bought a tube of chips and some wrapped dark chocolates and bar chocolates and OREOs and a few other odds and ends like gum.

We soon reached Nanjing where we picked up our local guide. The dude spoke very fast and loudly and had a tendency to raise his voice when ppl in the back of the bus were talking amongst themselves.

Our first stop in Nanjing was the Memorial for the Nanjing Massacre.


In my opinion, there are a number of discrepancies with this. Firstly, the official death toll was at 30, 000 ppl. But according to other reports, there were only about 10, 000 ppl in the area at that time.

Also, for a mass grave where they discovered the remains, some of the skeletons looked rather spaced out. You'd think after dumping bodies in one after another the bones would've been piled up all over each other.

Pictures are not allowed to be taken in the inner area of the museum where photos and artifacts are. Tour guides are also not allowed to narate anything there.

I can tell you this though. The descriptions below the pictures and artifacts found in the museum reek of bias. Using cleverly crafted words, if you're not wary, you can get pulled in.


We left the place soon after because it was near closing time. Our guide was clearly anti-Japanese as he explained more of the Massacre on the bus.


Next up was a bridge that was built solely by the Chinese themselves. The story goes that China wanted to build a bridge across the Yangtze River. The russians who were supposed to help them pulled out at the last minute due to strained ties and took everything, including the plans, with them.

So the Chinese decided to build their own bridge. Everyone in China contributed a dollar, the overseas Chinese sent over steel, and the workers in Nanjing sacrificed their only off day, Sunday, to work on the bridge which they completed in 8 years.

To get to the observation area at the top of one of the bridge's anchor pillars, we had to pass by a ginormous statue of Chairman Mao to take a lift up.

By now, it wasn't that cold either so I wasn't wearing a coat.

View of the bridge	View from the bridge
Model bridge	Model bridge

Within the anchor tower, there is a studio where this dude painted on the inside of glass balls. Apparently, he's the fastest on Earth.

We left for our dinner but only after a bit of waiting (James bought a S$2000 painted glass ball).


After all the poor Chinese Dishes, KK suggested that we eat somewhere else other than the place that we had booked earlier. So we went to this Western restaurant somewhere in the middle of town.

The gist of it is, the food wasn't all that great, the seasonings just weren't there. The waiter took the wrong order and then refused to change it to the proper one, even after admitting to the mistake. My dish which was to include Chicken Leg appeared with Chicken Breast.

In fact, the only nice things there were the Mango Juice which was a refreshing change, and the Ice-Cream which was absolutely divine. Sweet, tasty, flavourful, texturised. Excellent! Don't know what brand of Ice-Cream it was though.

After realising that this restaurant that we were in was in a department store that owned the entire building and had no atrium space at all, I went outside to take a few photos.


After all this photo taking and when the rest of them had finished their window shopping(nothing worth buying there), we all headed off to yet another new hotel.

The scenery surrounding our hotel was really colourful.

Waiting in Lobby for keys	Finally, a hotel with an Atrium
Internet Access	View out my window

I didn't go straight to sleep this time though. First, I checked to see if I could catch any tail end bits of the F1 Spanish Grand Prix. Then after getting nothing, I switched to American Idol which was, thankfully, in English.

Only after the show ended did I go to sleep.

End of day 4

Part 4 of 7