Shang Hai and Suzhou

This past weekend we traveled to Suzhou, and then to Shang Hai. Suzhou was really nice, we went to the "humble administrator's garden". This garden was the prettiest place I have ever seen. Everything was perfectly manicured. Every tree, every flower, every blade of grass was perfectly placed. They had a huge display of "bonsai" trees, which were pretty crazy. I put bonsai in quotations because that is the Japanese word for what the Chinese created. The Chinese were the people to come up with this art, but the Japanese are known for it. Go figure. Anyway, I don't know the word for it in Chinese.
We also took a tour of the old part of Suzhou on a small gondola. Suzhou is named the Venice of china. Originally, the commerce of the city was centered around its canals, but these days the canals are just used for washing clothes, dumping garbage, and amusing tourists. It was cool to see, but the water was really gross. Our guide was a sweet old woman, who was so kind to sing a couple of songs to us. She was really beautiful. Her voice was mysterious to me, deep, full of secrets, unpredictable, like the ocean.
After Suzhou we took a bus to Shang Hai. Shang Hai was all right. It really is just a gigantic city. We went to "the bund" which is a very famous road in Shang Hai. It looks like it is right out of Europe. All the buildings are completely different than other buildings in China. It is kind of a weird site, but that's what you get when the British come in. They gotta put there stamp on stuff, right? We didn't do much to speak of in Shang Hai. We mostly walked around and explored.
Our last trip is coming up in two weeks, then after that we'll be home! We will probably do a couple more posts, so be on the look out.
-a.