Damn, another tiring (though pleasant) day. I've really worn myself down this trip, and I'll be glad to just sit in one place in Kunming, just studying and not running myself ragged. Here's my train route for today:
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And then, here's my walking route in Suzhou:
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The trains here have been a dream．Everything in this leg of the trip, actually, has just been easier. It was only a half hour out to the city of Suzhou, in a very comfortable Z class train. I've been eating these Macanese egg tarts for breakfast, pretty good, actually. Suzhou is a really great city, and is an emblem of the various paradoxes that define China. On one hand, Suzhou is right on the Shanghai-Beijing train line, basically a suburb of Shanghai, and has a population of about six million people. However, it's also one of the oldest cities in China, having been continuously settled since the 800s BC, a city visited and admired by Marco Polo, a city built around a series of lovely little canals. So what you end up getting when you visit Suzhou is a thoroughly modern, dynamic city with a population about the size of Chicago proper, built around picturesque canals and studded with lovely, world famous gardens. Pretty awesome.
It doesn't really make sense for me to discuss the gardens one by one, since they have a kind of unified effect. The first garden I went to, the Humble Administrator's Garden is the largest and the loveliest, which I happily spent a few hours in. The Lion Forest Gardens have these really neat arrangements of rocks which you can walk under and over. The Ming Scholar Garden in the Met is actually based on a section of the Master of Nets Garden. The last garden I only spent twenty odd minutes in, and wasn't too impressed by, but then I was tired. Chinese gardens are just plain lovely, and neat in that they present so many paths for you to walk, so you feel like you're discovering the garden for yourself. I love the zig zag stone buildings and elevated pavilions and especially the mandarin ducks. I certainly wouldn't mind living in one of these gardens.
I've noticed, especially in this last stretch, that I've been absolutely happy and content, totally devoid of any of those worries or ambitions that have always gnawed at me in the past. I wonder if it's just because of this situation, that I wake up every day and go see beautiful things and don't have to worry about money or work, or if it's a certain state of mind that I can access at home, a certain clear headedness, a contentness found in abandoning all those big worries. I resist that idea a little bit, in that I really can't see myself abandoning the desire to become a great writer, or to be somebody. But maybe that's the route to happiness, and it's not just a matter of China, but anywhere I am.
My lunch today was terrific. I went to a restaurant that apparently, was founded in the Ming Dynasty. Makes Antoine's in New Orleans seem like the new kid on the block. As recommended, I ordered an oily eel dish that was just damn insane. Really a great meal, maybe my best yet. This southern leg has treated me well, food wise.
I didn't realize how much I had walked today until I mapped it just now, but I knew it certainly felt like a lot. I didn't think the distance between points would be so great, so I spent the whole day walking in that giant circle from the train station. Whew, tomorrow, and from now on, even this walking lover is going to try and take the bus.
It is the Lantern Festival here, so, in line with tradition, I bought some special yuanxiao (sweet rice dumpling things, think mochi). I actually mandarined this one out, requesting "the special cookies Chinese people eat today"; they're pretty good, though I had to buy a set of them and as a result, I ate too many. The fireworks are booming once again here (The Lantern Festival marks the end of the New Year season), with the locals setting them off in the street with no regard for anybody's safety. Tis the season, I guess. Nothing special for dinner today, as I ducked into a ramen house here and just gulped it down.
Tomorrow, my last big excursion, to the city of Hangzhou. I'll let you know how it goes. Till tomorrow.
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