Suzhou and Wuxi, China: July 25, 2016 - The Venice of the East

Before the trip, I was very excited to see Suzhou, the supposed "Venice of the East".  We didn't spend a great deal of time there, unfortunately, and it did not exactly match my expectations.  If you Google image search Suzhou - a thing you cannot do if you live in China, by the way - you see all these fanciful images of canals and vaguely Asian architecture that couple together to form a wistful fantasy world that wasn't really what I experienced.  Maybe that's because it was so hot.

We checked out of the Shanghai hotel that morning, since we'd be staying the night in Wuxi, even though we'd be back at the Shanghai airport the next day to fly to Beijing.  Originally we were supposed to take a train overnight to Beijing, but some scheduling conflicts got thrown on us last minute and the plans had to be changed.  Ah well.  Anyway, Suzhou was intended to simply be a morning side-trip on our way to Wuxi, where the real action was happening.

We got off the bus in Suzhou probably around 9 in the morning and it was already sweltering.  I have never sweat as much as I did during our brief stroll by the canal.

We crossed the bridge over the canal:

To this little plaza area:

We then walked up onto the city wall to this place:

And this place, a little temple/garden type area:

And that was pretty much it for Suzhou.  You see why I was a little underwhelmed.  Would have also been nice without the oppressive heat.  Y'know.

Throughout the trip, many of us - especially when in a big group - had the experience of being gawked at, since a few dozen (mostly) white people in a pack seems to be a rare sight in China, especially outside of major cities.  A lot of us had been asked for pictures by locals, and on my way out of Suzhou I received my first such request too.  Paige and I posed in turn with each one of a handful of Chinese schoolchildren - probably between 13 and 16 years old, if I had to guess - which was perfect timing, as my shirt had never been more drenched in sweat.  So, they got my good side.

Next, we went to a shop that sells pearls and also extracts them from oysters.  They took us into a room and had us all guess how many pearls would be inside a randomly selected oyster, then opened 'er up:

And I was one of the people whose guess was closest!  So I won this:

Hot diggity.

Then, as always, we were set loose to shop:

We also had the chance to buy peaches just outside:

Then lunch, then Wuxi.  On the busride there, Sheldon took the mic instead of Alex and held this sort of mock-quiz show of China-US diplomatic history, with cash prizes!  Sheldon kept doing this thing where he'd ask an obscure little question about something that happened in the early 1970s, berate us for not guessing, and then when we guessed incorrectly, he'd yell "NO!!!  NO!!!" as if we'd just spilled chardonnay on his brand new white carpet. At one point, someone near the front of the bus guessed something correctly, and he exclaimed "YES!!  HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?!" and I'm like, Sheldon, dude, DO YOU EXPECT US TO KNOW THESE THINGS OR NOT??

I did get a couple question right, though.  Earned myself 40 Chollars.

I happened to snap a picture of this place on the drive in:

...which turned out to be our concert hall for that night.  We got checked in at the hotel:

You'll notice in that last picture that the shower has a window in it.  This was also true at the Shanghai hotel.  I have no idea why this is part of the design practices of southeastern Chinese hotels, but it needs to stop.  I solved the problem by putting the non-slip suction-cup floor mat onto the part of the glass that wasn't frosted.  That worked well enough.

The view from the hotel room:

We then made our way back to the aforementioned concert hall to warm up and rehearse a bit.  We didn't realize other groups were also rehearsing at the same time:

It was a pretty neat concert hall, though.

Dinner was not so great; they took us back to the staff workroom, which was unbearably hot, and fed us these styrofoam boxes of rice, vegetables, and a chunk of mystery meat, and nothing to drink.  Not the best idea right before we're set to perform.  It actually turned out to not be the worst thought through meal of the week, though, surprisingly.

The concert for that night was setup, from what I could tell, specifically for us and for our visit.  There were, I think, six community choirs from Wuxi, each of whom did about two pieces, then there was an intermission, then our 45-minute set.  They would announce the names of the groups before they came on to sing, and they kept using the term "elderly choir", to distinguish them from children's choirs, which I found amusing.  A few of us were having trouble staying awake through the first half, having been worn down by a long day, not to mention that the initial trip adrenaline had long worn off by that point.  Still, the concert went over well, and the audience seemed very receptive.

A few shots of outside the concert hall at night:

And that was it for Wuxi.  I know of many of my friends who have been to Shanghai and Beijing - especially the latter, due to the 2008 Olympics - but I don't know of anyone who has been to Wuxi, or who ever will.  And that's not meant as a humblebrag.  I am trying, on these trips especially, to always be cognizant of moments that are rare, either from my cultural vantage point or at all.  The spinning on stage back in Chattanooga was certainly one of those, but singing for community chorus after community chorus in Wuxi, China has to be another.  There is a good chance that for the rest of my life, at any given moment, I will be the only person in the room who can say they've been to this city, much less this concert hall.  And that's interesting to me.

But more, I think, on this later.