12 June 2008
Suzhou - IM Pei’s hometown
Posted by zachnyc under: 6. Suzhou; 0. Home China Page .
Well, we finally arrived in Suzhou after our long airport ordeal. The airline that took such good care of us in Huangshan City (Tunxi) got us on a 9am flight and we were in Shanghai by 10:30a. (Suzhou does not have an airport). Then we caught a bus from the airport, which while comfortable, took almost 2 and a half hours to get to Suzhou. We got off the bus at the wrong stop, assuming that our hotel was on the east side of the city, while in fact it was on the west side!
After a long and relatively expensive taxi ride (about 70 RMB or $10 but driven by who we think may have been a lesbian) we finally arrived at the Hotel One, which had been written up on tripadvisor.com as the “coolest hotel in China” and one of the best modern design examples in Asia. Indeed, our room was beautiful and spacious and the hotel had many neat features including Wii, great WiFi internet service, a cool lounge, iMacs in the lobby and bar, and a wonderful German guest relations manager, Malwine.
It was 3:30 pm when we were ready to hit Suzhou’s famous gardens and we had hoped to first visit the I. M. Pei designed Suzhou museum. The famous New York City-based architect’s family has lived in Suzhou since the 15th century. The Pei family’s ancestral residence is in a renowned garden in Suzhou, now part of the World Heritage Site listed in the Classical Gardens of Suzhou. The house was called the Garden of the Lion Forest and consisted of many rock sculptures carved naturally by water. Pei loved how the buildings and the nature were combined and especially liked the way light and shadow mixed. In 2006, Pei designed the new wing of the Suzhou museum on part of the garden’s grounds. Unfortunately the last entrance to the Museum is at 4 pm and our taxi took much longer than expected due to traffic so we proceeded directly to the Humble Administrator’s Garden.
Outside we accepted the services of an attractive English-speaking guide, Michelle, who explained the historic and aesthetic aspects of the Garden to us. This is another World Heritage site and the largest and most impressive garden among Suzhou’s many gardens. Dating to the early 1500s, its five hectares contain bridges, pavilions, bamboo groves, and fragrant lotus plants. Afterwards, we did a bit of shopping (Reggie, have you mastered those amazing card tricks yet?) and Michelle offered to drive us to a local restaurant that she recommended. She even escorted us, helped us order and secured a private and well air-conditioned banquet room for us, where we enjoyed another great and very reasonably priced meal (about $12 per person for 7 shared courses, and several large Tsing Tao pijiu). For an interesting history of Chinese beer, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_beer.
Then it was back to the Hotel One where we enjoyed the lounge and some competitive tennis Wii matches before retiring to enjoy our fab rooms: http://suzhou.hotelone.landishotelsresorts.com/
See our pictures > here <.
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