32. Suzhou - Tiger Town

SUZHOU – TIGER TOWN
A flight from Wuhan landed our group in Shanghai and we were bussed from there to Suzhou, about fifty miles west of Shanghai. Many were sniffling or coughing and others were dealing with stomach upsets that forced stops whenever a public washroom appeared. We were a sorry-looking lot when we dragged ourselves off our bus for a late dinner at a sorry-looking restaurant near Suzhou. It had vinyl strips hung in the doorway to let in the breeze while discouraging flying bugs. The place was grungy and the staff had obviously stayed beyond normal hours to serve our tardy group. The bathrooms offered the stand-up variety only and they were filthy.

The Suzhou food specialty is barbequed pork hock. At a better hour in a cleaner place it would likely have appealed to all but the sick among us, but these factors worked against that fare on this occasion. Suzhou disappointed in both the quality of this restaurant and the quality of the hotel. The accommodation too was poorly prepared for our late arrival; luggage delivery was so disorganized that many of us wandered wearily through the halls for an hour or more in search of missing suitcases; and our beds were hard as granite slabs.

This town (pronounced Sue-JOE) was founded as the capital city of “Wu” 2500 years ago and is one of the oldest communities of the Yangtze River basin. The current name was adopted in 589 A.D. during the Sui Dynasty when the community was as large as it is today due to the local manufacture of silk. Suzhou silk even made its way to Rome along the famous Silk Road.

Suzhou has finer claims to fame. It is known as The Garden City because its centuries-old gardens are remarkable for their delicate configurations of hills and ponds, terraces, corridors, towers and everything else befitting an imperial garden. Its garden trees are aromatic and evergreen camphors, attractive gingko bilobas, and mulberries which provide the foodstuff for local silk worms. Tree trunks, as elsewhere, are often bound with protective rope. These trees thrive in the tropical climate of Suzhou which receives rain for 200 days each year. At 10 a.m. the temperature was already 31o C during our late-October visit.

Lingering Garden is a delightful example of perfectly planning. Even the name reflects the perfection. One definitely wants to linger there. The requisite mountains are far from Suzhou so pocked limestone boulders were hauled in to provided miniature mountains. Designed for the imperial family, living quarters were open to breezes and tucked among paved, winding byways. The paving itself is a pebble mozaic of good-fortune symbols like the crane, that represents long life.

On the Sunday of our visit, Lingering Garden brimmed with relaxing Chinese and roving performers. Unlike our rush through the Beijing Park on a similar Sunday, however, we were allowed more time to soak up the culture in the form of a remarkable tiger that leapt from pillar to post over seemingly impossible distances while simultaneously flirting with disaster and with the audience. The two young acrobats somehow managed to see their targets and achieve solid footing while covered in a cumbersome costume and while performing cat-like movements, including languid stretching, eye-batting and jaw chomping. The costume featured favourite Chinese colours—gold for wealth and red for good fortune.

We watchers were, for the most part, breathless from amazement and breath-holding. While we marveled aloud afterwards about this act, the whiner piped: “Is your mouth dry like mine? It must be from the MSG that these Chinese put in all of their food. I ate only bread this morning to avoid MSG, but my mouth is still dry. They must put it in the bread too.” (Would she never find a thing to admire about this China—even in this lovely Lingering Garden?)

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