Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Day 3: Suzhou

No joke, the name of this garden/park, as listed on my ticket, is National Tourist Attraction of Grade AAAA. Of course, there are Chinese characters on the ticket as well but I'm stuck with relying on the English.
The place was definitely Grade AAAA. There were moats with boats, portions of the original city wall and, big bonus, a really cool pagoda! Other than being really cool, the other thing that stands out about the pagoda is that is was really dusty inside. It was as if a huge dust storm had blown through and left a fine layer of the stuff all over the interior. Not surprising since most of urban/suburban China seems to be one big construction zone.
While I did not get pictures of the dusty interior, I did get some of the exterior and a view from the top level. Lovely!
TRUE STORY: While approaching the National Tourist Attraction of Grade AAAA, we noticed groups of people on the street with their hats off and heads bowed. Suddenly, an air siren started sounding and all the cars on the street began laying on their horns. Turns out, all of China was observing a "moment of silence" for the victims of the earthquake that occurred two weeks prior. The sirens and horns continued to blare the entire time. A moment of silence Chinese style?

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