Daytrip to Suzhou...

We had a beautiful free Saturday in mid-August, so we decided to have Mr Yao drive us to Suzhou.  Suzhou  苏州 is located in the Jiangsu province about 2 hours northwest of Shanghai.  It is well-known for it's beautiful gardens and temples, and it is a primary location for Chinese silk.

We started our visit at one of many temples, called Beisi Ta (North Temple Pagoda).    Of course, a temple isn't complete without a Buddha near the entrance.  The boys enjoyed getting their first picture taken with Buddha...and Alex decided to show off his "Buddha belly" as well!

 

Just inside the temple area, there was a beautiful little pond with flowers, koi, and much greenery.
   

The temple was quite elaborate on the ground floor, with at least a dozen Buddha statues around the circle.   The pagoda is, at 76m, the tallest Chinese pagoda south of the Yangzi, though it retains only nine of its original eleven storeys .  We climbed up to the highest point that was maintained, and the view of all of Suzhou was spectacular! 

 

Alex and Derek posed like their favorite statue...

     

The next stop was to the Suzhou Silk Museum.  The museum was under renovations, so much of it was temporarily closed off to the public.  We did get to see some interesting displays...



A statue of Leizu, who was described as the inventor of silkworm raising in Chinese legend.  She taught sericulture to the people 5,000 years ago!
 
Ancient writing on the walls...

 

You'd think this is a wax model of the leaves and silk worms...until you take a closer look and see the worms moving and eating!

This was one of many beautiful silk robes on display...

Next, we visited the Suzhou Museum.  There was many displays with historical Chinese items -- jade, pottery, tools and weapons, clothing, carvings, and the list goes on.  We didn't take many photos as they restricted them in some areas.

Our final stop for the day was to one of the hundreds of gardens in Suzhou.  The garden was called "The Lion Forest Garden".  It was built in 1312 by a Buddhist Monk to honor his teacher.  It consisted of 4 small lakes and rock caves, bridges, and sculptures thought to resemble lions (though we didn't quite see the resemblance!).

 

   
The boys enjoyed exploring the rocks and caves...including getting lost a few times.


Derek loved the garbage cans shaped as lions...

  
A few small buildings and outcroppings contained statues.

It was a wonderful visit to Suzhou.  We didn't get a chance to shop for any silk, which seems like an essential part of Suzhou, so I'm sure we'll have a few return visits.

And the adventure continues...

View from the top of the JinMao Tower...

One of the taller buildings in Shanghai is called the JinMao Tower.  It has 88 stories, and the observation deck is on the 88th floor.  The boys took a trip to the top to see how far you could see on a fairly clear day...
  This is Pearl Tower...

  and a view of the river.  The area on the other bank is called the Bund.

The boys took turns using the binoculars to look at different buildings around the JinMao Tower.
   

Derek pretended to touch the top of the antenna on top of the Pearl Tower...

 

This is a close-up view of the Shanghai World Financial Center, which is 101 stories and is located right next to JinMao Tower.  It's commonly referred to as the "bottle opener", for obvious reasons, and we've been to the top of that one already as well!  It was considered the tallest building in the world in 2009, but I believe another taller building has been built since then so it's now #2.
 

Inside the JinMao Tower is a hotel.  This is a view from the top of the JinMao Tower down through the middle of the tower, where the hotel rooms are around the outside.  The boys both thought it was dizzying to look down...


A view from the bottom of the tower looking up...


Very impressive, two tall towers...SWFC on the left, and JinMao on the right.  Soon enough, that base of a structure in the lower right of the picture will be 1/3 taller than the SWFC and will be the tallest building in the world.  We'll continue to watch progress on that one, though we're pretty sure it won't be completed by 2014.  Then again, things go up very quickly here in Shanghai, so it's possible...


Next building we need to visit is Pearl Tower, which has either 2 or 3 observation areas and a ride inside...

and the adventure continues...

Century Park

On one of the Mom and Boys days off before home leave, we decided to check out what there was to do at Century Park.  Century Park is 140 hectares right in the Pudong-Jinqiao area, about 1 mile down the street from our apartment.  The boys and I were excited to find that they had bikes -- both the 2-wheel and 4-wheel variety -- for rent as well as paddle boats, an amusement park area with rides and a little roller coaster, and plenty of open space for playing frisbee and flying a kite.

First thing we did was rent one of the 4-wheel bikes to ride around for an hour.  There were 2 sets of pedals, so the boys alternated helping peddle and steer...though it was a stretch for Derek to reach, so most of the work was done by myself and Alex.

   

Next, we found a little Bonsai Tree farm.  The boys thought some of the trees weren't small enough to be part of the farm, but it was interesting to see all of the different sizes, shapes, and varieties of trees in the farm.
     

Our final stop at Century Park was at the Amusement Park area.  They had this elevated track around the entire outside of the Amusement Park, and the boys were excited to get the bird's eye view of the area.  We also went on the small rollercoaster...SO proud of Derek for going on it with us even though he was freaked out, and he found he even enjoyed it (except for bumping his head when we got off).
   
   

The paths in the park were quite empty when we were there, most likely since it was during the week.  As we drive by on the weekend, there are always lots of people there enjoying the biking, wide open green areas, and touch of nature in the middle of 20 million people.
     

With this being so close we can ride our bikes there, we look forward to another visit to try out the paddle boats...

and the adventure continues...