Yet another cloudy day, but at least it's not raining.
Had a relaxing start, eating breakfast while watching the swans having their breakfast outside also! so we didn't really get started till about 10am.
First got a taxi to the Garden for Lingering In, which seemed to take ages to get to. There were quite a few tour groups around and we were not too impressed by this garden as it's not really that special. Still one garden ticked off our list!
Then we took a taxi to the Lion Grove which was a lot quieter (presumably not one of the main attractions tourists would go to) and there were some interesting rock features dotted around this garden.
Our 3rd stop was the Humble Administrator's Garden, a short walk up the road from the Lion Grove. Quite a large one here but obviously a few more tourists again. Still, it's nothing compared to the major sites in Beijing---- thank God for that! We took loads of pictures here, some with tripod (some people thought that we were professional photographers). By the time we finished this garden we had just about enough garden visits for one day and so we decided to take a walk to the Silk Museum, seeing the North Temple Pagoda on the way.
The Silk Museum only cost RMB7 per person to get in, and featured an explanation on the history of silk production in China, the evolution of silkworms into moths, a room with some live worms munching away their favourite Chinese mulberry leaves, and a workshop (maybe we were a little late and so most staff were packing up. But we got the idea on how silk was made). The shop was huge, but the silk products were expensive (not really any cheaper than England). So being sensible shoppers, we came out of the shop empty-handed.
We then took the bus to Guanqian Jie, the main shopping street in Suzhou, to have a look round at the shops at this pedestrianised street. Came across Temple of Mystery and so just did the sightseeing outside. There was a guy doing his evening Tai-chi with his son copying his moves. That was rather amusing.
Then we went to Songhelou for dinner. This was one of the most famous restaurants in Suzhou and it was huge---- the place was divided into several rooms on each floor. We ordered a few special dishes --- bilouchun shrimp (at a high cost of RMB200 but more tasty than the Lungjiang shrimp in Hangzhou), Cherry Pork (a signature dish at Songhelou, using the fattest belly of pork with a very nice sweet "gravy"), aubergine in spicy garlic sauce, and turnip cake. The Cherry Pork was absolutely delicious but totally unhealthy---- it was almost pure fat and there was a thick layer of fat setting at the bottom of the rice bowl when we finished it. Still, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience! (Well, until I return to Suzhou anyway!)
After dinner, we went to the food centre on Guanqian Jie and bought some top grade bilouchun tea and some more Eight-Treasure tea. Another RMB236 gone to our tea collection on this trip!
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