Day 5 November 17, 2006
We got up this morning an had breakfast before we left to go to the silk factory on where they take the silk from the cocoon and thread it into silk string and then into cloth. We had a chance to buy silk quilts for our bed but we decided not to thinking we may never use them. While at the silk factory I did buy a very nice silk shirt.
We then went to the Gardens of Suzhou, very beautiful and very old gardens; they are over 500 years old. The gardens where large and we didn’t get a chance to see all of it but what we did see was amazing.
After we where done with the gardens we went back to the silk factory for lunch and then a boat ride in the Suzhou Water Country. The city of Suzhou has canales like Venice in Italy we got to see older parts of the city and walk through a outside market area. Amazing what you can find in these markets. We saw lots of “old” items that you would think where “old”. But Chinese laws forbid the sale of Chinese antiques.
After we where done with the boat ride we went to an embroidery factory and saw how silk embroidery was done. Some of the pieces where just amazing and all where done by hand. They had pieces as little as $100.00 to over $60,000.00 and took as long as 2 years to make. The most amazing thing about some of these embroidery pieces was that they where 2 sided with different pictures on both side. Absolutely amazing.
We left Suzhou for the city of Hangzhou, a 2-hour drive by bus and had dinner at Howard Johnson in Hangzhou, not like the ones at home. After dinner we stopped at a Knock Off store, that our guide told us about. I got a new wallet $11.00, two Rolex watches for $65.00. Of course these are not originals but what the hell they both look really good.
We checked into our room at the hotel, what a ROOM…. We have a California king bed, walk in closet, duel sinks, bathtub and a SEPERAT shower, toilet with a boudoir. Wish we where staying more than 1 night.