This May, the start of summer, I travelled to Suzhou, where is my hometown. My initial purpose of this trip is to meet my grandpa. He lived in hospital for several months and suffered from eating food.
Suzhou's Chinese character "Su" showed below. This is a traditional Chinese character, which has many components. The two things above mean mountains, the left of this character means "fish", while the right means "grains". This character shows that Suzhou is a very rich and important city, because it has many mountains and redundant foods.
Although Suzhou is my hometown, I have not been there for over 6 years. Since my parents began working in Guangzhou and created a new home, they encouraged their parents to come to Guangzhou and played. My parents are really busy in working, which causing them no time to return to hometown. Therefore, I decided to have a SOLO travel, which means, travel with myself. Actually, a lot of people may consider SOLO travel will be very boring and lonely, because no one will help you to take pictures, chat with you, etc. However, when I began my SOLO travel at 18 years old, I felt I love to travel with myself, and beautiful scenery. Because I don't like to talk too much or wait others for a long time or follow others' interests, SOLO travel opens a new world for me.
The first night I arrived in Suzhou and went to Wangshi Garden (Master of the Net), a very small but knot garden. The reason why I chose Wangshi Garden, is because this is the only garden opening at night. Wangshi Garden was first constructed in 1140, and Wangshi in Chinese means using the net to catch masters, which means attracting masters to come to this garden. Garden provides us 8 activities, which is the daughters or servants of the garden owners may enjoy. These ladies cannot go out of this garden before they married, so they have many activities to make them happier.
The video below was Suzhou conventional instruments, and the lady sang using Suzhou dialect.
My eyes went wet when I heard this song. My grandparents also said in Suzhou dialect. The feeling of listening to this song reminds me the beauties of Suzhou culture and my grandparents young life. Thousand years ago, ladies sat in this room and listened to the same song we heard today. Isn't that really moving?
This is the overview of Wangshi Garden at night.
Moreover, Suzhou has another interesting name: Eastern Venice. In ancient time, when there is no automobiles or vehicles, residents go to everywhere by wooden canoe. Therefore, many houses were built near the river, which are easy approached. Although in recent years, Suzhou residents seldom used canoe to travel anymore, the river still exists and marks as visiting spot.
Not only the beautiful and quiet scenery, but also the food in Suzhou is gorgeous and exquisite. What's more, Suzhou food is also one of the eight Chinese traditional provincial food. It is special because everything is a little bit sweet, no matter its Suzhou bun, or fish, the food there are all sweet.
The picture below shows a traditional Suzhou bun, which contains crabs and redundant soup inside. I only added a little vinegar, and the taste is ridiculous. (OMG! I am hungry!!!)
This picture below is my grandma making food. (The lady who wears white dots clothes is my grandma). She can make many kinds of pickles and cook dishes very well. She is the natural and creative cooker. I think I love cooking so much is influenced from her. When I was young, I watched my grandma to cook food in the summer. She can cook millions of dishes. Every time she came to our house, every day's meals are different.
PLUS: There is an interesting fact. Before a few days I went to Suzhou, an international famous architect I.M.Pei passed away. Pei moved to Suzhou in the young age, and his grandparents are really rich. Therefore, they bought Lion Grove Garden and turned in as a private garden. Pei played in that garden when he was young and had an initial thought about architecture. When he was 85 years old, Pei decided to build a Suzhou Museum near his childhood place, with the great support from the government. I also went to this museum, which is both new and traditional. It's my first time to be in this museum, and the whole layout is pretty unconventional and creative.
The picture below is photoed in Suzhou Museum. Many visitors came to admire him.
The overview of Suzhou Museum from inside.
The famous 3-d project of Chinese traditional light scape painter Mi Fu.
Comments