Our next stop after Guilin/Yangshuo was Hangzhou, a favorite city of Debbie’s and mine from our travels many years ago. Hangzhou is at the center of an area that has long been China’s richest, and is built on the shores of the beautiful West Lake: the combination means endless spots where nature and artifice harmonize together in contemplative walks, historic pavilions, and temple complexes.

 

Unfortunately, both girls spent the entire time in Hangzhou in our hotel rooms with fevers! I got to explore a bit with grandma and grandpa, and Debbie got out a bit herself, but (perhaps in subconscious sympathy with Samantha and Rachel) we forgot to take our camera each time we ventured out of the hotel. So images of Hangzhou will have to exist for you, as for the girls, in your imaginations.

 

We were all feeling better by the time we reached Suzhou, though, which was a 3 1/2 hour train ride away. The terrific weather we’d experienced in Guilin and on our first day in Hangzhou had now given way to periodic drizzle, but the gardens and canals for which Suzhou is renowned still look great in such conditions. We all loved the exquisite Master of Nets garden (top right), one room of which has been re-created in the Met in New York -- although without the gardens themselves, a room from the complex is like an elaborate picture frame without the painting it is supposed to highlight.

 

Other memories of Suzhou include a terrific boat trip through its canals and under its ancient bridges, observing the on-going life of the urban poor who now live in the ancient (and lacking in modern conveniences) buildings along the waterways. We enjoyed a visit to a silk factory, which we got to try stretching out the silk that would be used in silk comforters. And probably Rachel’s top experience was being enclosed in an inflated ball and rolled out into a pond within another garden!