Monday, September 17 (Mel):  Still in Shanghai

Got to sleep in!  We met Jon and Heidi downstairs and headed to the "Reproduction and Sex Museum".  They had artifacts of ancient cultures and how items like lotus flowers, seeds, etc., denoted fertility and reproduction and stuff like that.  They also had paintings of concubines, furniture used by prostitutes, vases of fertility, and other benign objects.  There were two displays that horrified me.

One was the shoes that women wore after their feet were bound (history lesson on this in a minute).  The other was a picture of a couple holding their baby.  Although that might seem harmless, the couple was 8 and 9 years old.

The picture that made me laugh was a caption under a picture of 8 kids which read, "The horrifying photo of a family with EIGHT CHILDREN".  (In China, they have the 1-child rule...)

Okay, the history lesson.  For centuries, before the communist revolution, the custom was to bind little girls' feet at the age of 5.  A mother would be forced to dip strips of cloth into a hardening mixture, and wrap their daughter's feet with just enough room inside to wiggle the toes.  She would wrap the foot from the ankle down.  The little girl would walk around in her new shoes with no pain for about six months.  Then the pain would start in -- small at first, then to the point of the little girl crying from excruciating pain roughly 9 months after binding.  This pain would come and go, depending on if she was in a growth spurt, until the girl was 18 years old.  The binding would be removed, which would expose her deformed 6" long feet.  The toes would be curled underneath, and they would be the shape of an ostrich egg.

Why was this done?  For beauty and control.  To keep women under control -- they could not run from an abusive husband.  Houses would have a 12" high board across all the doors.  It was a way of keeping women in the house; it would be painful to step over the boards.  The way the women would walk around the house was to shuffle their feet (sorta like walking on ice).  The beauty -- the feet binding was a status symbol; done in the houses of nobility.  The belief was that the bigger the feet, the uglier the girl.  The only way a girl could escape this torture is if she were born into a poor family (i.e., needed to work in the fields).  Feet binding was abolished at the beginning of the communist revolution.  Mao's wife escaped the binding when she was 6 years old; she cut off the bindings and ran away from home.

After the museum we went to KFC, then TCBY.  KFC was crowded, but TCBY was almost empty.  Apparently frozen yogurt hasn't quite caught on in China yet.

Western mannequins at Shanghai department store

Our next excursion was the post office to mail some souvenirs to our house (so we wouldn't have to lug that extra weight around from Shanghai to Beijing).  One window for the box and forms.  Another for the bottom piece of tape on the box.  Then we pack the stuff in the box and fill out the forms.  Then one window to inspect the box and stamp the form with the official government seals.  Another station to tape the box, another to put straps on it, and the last to weigh it, check the forms, more government stamps/seals, then she said "air or surface?"  Air is two weeks and surface mail is 2-3 months.  We said "air".  She typed some stuff in the computer, then looked at us and said "768 yuan".  768 yuan????  That's over $90!!  That's about what we paid for the souvenirs (well, we paid a little more than that).  Ken freaked, we dumped our money on the counter and counted out 768 yuan, then Ken had comments about our post office experience while we walked to The Bund.

We found a park near The Bund.  The Bund is a street lined with old buildings from the 1930's, when Shanghai was in its prime.  At the park we found the People's Monument, which was built to honor those who fought for liberation (i.e., communism).  Under this monument is a Coke umbrella, and under the umbrella sits a cranky man who yells at people who dare to cross the fence around the construction zone.  He waits under the umbrella, ever watchful, and ready to pounce.  We sat in the shade, read, wrote in our journal, and watched the man.

Mao and Ken

We met the group for dinner at the restaurant across the street.  They had no menus in English, so we pointed to phrases in the phrase book.

Summed up, it was our Worst Meal Ever.  I don't know how to explain it, except that the meat was undercooked and the vegetables overcooked, plus the rice was cold.  We have 2 new couples join us today, and what a wonderful intro to our group, huh?  One couple is from Ireland, and the other from England.  We've been telling them horror stories about our trip so far.  (Aren't we lovely?)

Sitting at the worst dinner ever with our travel group

After dinner we went to a real coffee lounge, then some minor shopping.  We ran into Robert and Kitty.  It's their last night in Shanghai before going back home.  We leave tomorrow for the "Venice of China".  Shanghai is considered the "Paris of China".

I supposed that Beijing is considered the "Moscow of China"...

Tuesday, September 18 (Mel):  Zhouzhang and its canals

We had the full Chinese buffet for breakfast at the hotel.  Melons, dumplings, small steamed buns, weak coffee.  We checked out of the hotel at 9:30am, and it was yet another small bus (oh joy!) to our next destination -- Zhouzhang.

Zhouzhang is considered the Venice of China.  It has several canals, and bridges and row boats.  Old women row the boats.  They wear white scarves and sing when rowing.  We haven't gone on a boat ride yet, but we bought a pass (60 yuan, $7.50), which allows us into all the sites.

Zhouzhang

Zhouzhang is where poets, artists, painters, and writers used to go to write/paint/poet about subjects that have to do with water.  Now it's just a tourist site for people from Shanghai.  Although less crowded than Shanghai, it's still pretty crowded.  The alleys and sidewalks are very narrow.  Not many kids.  The tourist sites are temples and former residences of famous poets/writers/painters.

The hotel we're staying at is a former residence of someone famous.  It's about 100 years old, brown wood walls and posts, traditional Chinese windows, inner exposed courtyard, stone floors in the main areas, ancient furniture, and everything else you could think of that would scream "Chinese Traditional!!"

I want to buy a mahjong set here; Heidi found one that is ivory and bamboo for 120 yuan.  (What a steal!)  She told me where to get it, so I'll look in a little bit.  I was trying to take a nap, but this place is noisy.

At 7pm we met up with some of the group for dinner.  (Laurel and a few others went earlier, since Laurel is diabetic and must eat by a certain time.)  When we got to the restaurant where Laurel and the others were, they told us not to eat there, because the food wasn't good.  Just as they said that, the waitress brought in a place of chicken, nicely arranged by pieces, with sprigs of lemon grass throughout, and the chicken head in the center of the plate, beak facing up.  Laurel gasped, then Jon noticed a rate scurrying across the room and pointed it out.  That sent Laurel over the edge and she ran out of the restaurant.  I told her that since this is the Year of the Rat, then seeing a rat is good luck.  She didn't buy it.  She came with us to another restaurant.

Canals of Zhouzhang

We had a great dinner, and felt kinda guilty about it, sorta like "survivor's guilt".  After dinner we played several rounds of mahjong.  Grant stayed in the room with us (since our room has 3 beds).  Because he likes heat and I like cold, Jon took it upon himself to be the "neutral third party" and turned on the A/C.  It was needed, since it's very humid in Zhouzhang.  As I fell asleep, I was marveling at being able to sleep in a traditional Chinese house that was over a hundred years old.

Wednesday, September 19 (Mel):  Suzhou and its gardens

The power blackout started at 5am.  The A/C kicked off, and about 7am the room started to heat up.  One of my first thoughts was wondering if Grant turned off the A/C...

Life goes on as usual in Zhouzhang without the power.  They don't really need it.  Women still wash their clothes in a plastic basin by the canal, they still cook breakfast (most of China uses propane for cooking or hot tiles), children still walk to school.  The only thing missing is the blaring loud TVs.

We left the Zhengdu House and walked through the village to our boat.  The boat took us to Suzhou, a city of 5 million, on the other side of the lake.  Suzhou is known for its gardens -- almost 70 of them.  On the lake we saw fish nets, groves, farmers, boats transporting coal.

Fishing on lake between Zhouzhang and Suzhou

We checked into our hotel, located lunch at a restaurant ("best dumplings in Suzhou" it claims), then wandered the city.  We were looking for the market, but never found it.  On the way back to the hotel, we had to walk through Soochow University.  It's a university like any other, except very few cars, students get around on bikes, and the buildings are begging for some maintenance.

We went on a boat tour of the canals.  Since I was in a dehydration coma, I fell asleep, and only woke up when a tree limb slapped me in the face.

After the boat tour we took a taxi to the Humble Architects Garden, which had ponds, a zillion pagodas, a bunch of flowers and shrubs.  It was pretty, but after a dozen pagodas, four ponds, and humongous 6-ft. lotus plants, I burned out.  One pond proclaimed "12 pairs of ducks".  We only found about 8 floating ducks and 2 swimming rats.

                           
                                                        Suzhou garden                                                                                           Mel at the Humble Architect's garden

       
                                            Sign at garden                                                                                            Lotus pond at Huble Architect's garden

We all met at 6pm for a great dinner with 6 chicken dishes cooked every which way, but no chicken heads were allowed on the table to respect Laurel. 

After dinner we went to the Garden of the Nets for a fantastic show.  There are about 6 pavilions.  They seated us inside the pavilions, and we saw the traditional Good Fortune dance, the Mouse Thief and Jailer act, 2 musicians do a traditional song, 3 musicians on Chinese stringed instruments, a girl who played this long dulcimer-type of instrument, and 2 flutists.  We travelled from pavilion to pavilion for each segment, and viewed these performances with a background of ponds, rocks, and chirping crickets.  During the performances there was a group of French tourists who kept talking during the performance.  I was very tempted to crudely tell them in French to shut up.  (Knew my ability to speak French would come in handy one day...)

           
                  The mouse and the thief                                                            Two musicians                                                                            Girl playing

One the way back to the hotel, I stopped at the street market and managed to find the "Official Chairman Mao Red Book" in both English and Russian.  Score!!!

Now we are back at the hotel, playing mahjong in Jon and Heidi's room, in addition to giving Heidi crap about leaving her digital camera in a taxi today.  Tomorrow they will have to go through the hassle of filing a police report.

Tomorrow we will start the morning with a bonus -- Grant managed to find a box of Chinese Coco Krispies!  Now all we have to do is find a bowl and spoon.  Otherwise, we'll have to eat them with chopsticks.  That would be quite time-consuming.

Thursday, September 20 (Ken)

A bit behind on my journal...  Hangshou, the city by the lake, is touted in ancient Chinese writing as one of the most beautiful places in China.  It is certainly a pretty place -- with the big lake, long tree-lined causeways, bisecting the lake, and mountains in the distance to the West.  But I thought the mountains in Yangshou were more stunning.  Maybe I'm just getting spoiled.

Went for a long bike ride around Westlake in Hangshou.  Turned out to be something of an ordeal to find a bike, but I finally found a beat-up, rusty, old, single-speed cruiser for 7 yuan per hour, and I was just happy to be riding.  The ride itself wasn't that great -- dusty, polluted streets, and not much view of the lake, except for a bit of riding along the causeways.  And halfway through the ride, the left pedal crank fell off.  I had to find a rock to bang the pin back in to hold the pedal on.  But it was fun to be riding along with the thousands of locals, on their way home during evening rush hour.  The bike even had a bell, which I used a lot, mostly just for fun.  Most of the people I passed seemed surprised or amused.

The Buddhist temple, although overrun with commercialism, was awe-inspiring.  The giant statues of the Buddha, Arhats (monks), and other figures (not sure who they were) were amazingly detailed in their workmanship.  We also got to see part of a prayer service; although beautiful and solemn, there were some amusing details -- one monk (or student?) picking a thread off the back of another monk's frock during the service, another breaking the "formation" to go turn on a floor fan, and several of them using black binder clips (for holding together stacks of paper) to keep their frocks fastened.  In Hangshou, we broke down and went to KFC and Haagen-Daas.  The chicken sandwich and french fries tasted pretty darned good.

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Next segment: 

blind reflexology,
more train stories,
a bunch o' Buddhas in a cave,
Ken starts writing...

mkadenko/01.01.02