We found that the city combined old and new. The old part of the city is a checkerboard pattern of alternating waterways and streets running north to south and east to west. The museum is modern and excellent, designed by I.M. Pe. Somewhere in-between is Suzhou Silk Factory #1, our inevitable crafts stop of the day.
Other than too much time to kill in the retail store, the silk factory was interesting. We learned the life cycle of the silk moth.
There are three harvests each year (spring, summer and fall) corresponding to the availability of mulberry leaves. Spring silk is the best. A single cocoon yields one continuous thread of silk...1,200 meters (approximately 3/4 of a mile) long! The thread is approximately 1/10th the thickness of a human hair.
The factory process begins with the dried cocoons being sorted for quality.
Eight or sixteen individual threads are the woven into a larger thread.
The resulting thread is then woven into a pattern.
The looms in the public demonstration section of this factory still get their instructions from punched paper.
Our tour of Suzhou's waterways was both similar and different from the tour of Zhujiajiao. This time we were in a motorboat that held more passengers and lacked the charm of the boats in Zhujiajiao but allowed us to see more of the canal system including the Grand Canal so important in China's history.
The canal system was more symmetrical and a combination of large and small canal.
After lunch that included some classical Suzhou music played on traditional instruments by a couple of kids...
...who thankfully received adequate if not enthusiastic applause, we visited one on Suzhou's famous gardens - The Master-of-the Nets Garden.
Back in the day it was owned by a bureaucrat who wanted to be a fisherman when he retired, hence the name. The garden was at the end of several small streets and behind a wall so as not to draw attention to the wealth of it's owner.The gardens of that period were about tranquility, subtlety and form with a complete absence of bright colors.
At the conclusion of our garden visit, it was back down the alleyways,onto the bus and off to the Suzhou Museum.
Our visit to the museum too short, but the need to get back to the ship before sailing time, it was onto he bus for the two hour drive to the pier.
The lines were cast off at 1900. We got some more views of the Shanghai skyline at night as we headed downriver.
A note for anyone visiting Shanghai by ship, the size of the ship is important. There is a bridge that limits the size of vessels that can travel upriver of it. Reportedly VOYAGER had three feet of clearance.
A Princess Line cruise ship that arrived the day we departed had to dock at the other cruise ship terminal which is 25 miles downriver. Our Shanghai experience would have been much less impressive had we not had the experiences of the trip upriver, the day and night skyline views and the ability to walk to The Bunt.
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Location:Suzhou + Shanghai
