China Trip Part 3 and 4: Su Zhou and Shang Hai

Okay i finally have time to continue blogging about my China trip, okay so after Hang Zhou we when to Su Zhou by coach again and began our learning journey once more. At Su Zhou we went to the "狮子林 " also know as the lion garden. This garden is famous for the large taihu rocks at its center.The name of the garden is derived from the shape of these rocks, which are said to resemble lions. In the olden days,only the very wealthy and with staus could have a mansion with a garden,not everyone could have the chance to stay in the mansion. The bigger mansion with tiles arranged in a triangle shape, with crafted beams and more furniture is meant for the males to gather in the house. The famale gathered in a room with tiles arranged in a rectangle shape. The furnishing was simple as compared to the male gathering room.This was because in the past, it was not advisable for a famale to be seen with a male. After that we also went to  寒山寺 learned the famous poem named "枫桥夜泊", it goes ; " 月落乌啼霜满天，江枫渔火对愁眠，姑苏城外寒山寺，夜半钟声到客船 ". The poem is still popularly read in China, Japan and Korea. It is part of the primary school curriculum in both China and Japan. The ringing of the bell at HanShan Temple on Chinese New Year Eve is a major pilgrimage and tourism event for visitors from these countries. We also went to tiger hill which is only approximately about 30m in height. The Tiger Hill is the most famous scenic spot of Suzhou standing to the north west of Suzhou. was the place where the King of "Wu", Fu Chai, buried his father-King He lu along with 3000 swords. Legend says that on the third day after the burial, a white tiger appeared to guard the tomb, hence the name of the hill. The Yunyan Pagoda, also known as the Leaning Pagoda, stands on top of the hill. Today this 1000-year-old pagoda had become a symbol of Suzhou. It is 7 stories in height and famously leans much the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In face this pagoda is taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. That concluded our day in Su Zhou. The next day we went to Zhou Zhuang, in that place they have lots of olden bridge and also have boats moving on the river under the bridge. That place is as beautiful as Vienna, it has beautiful scenery. After this we went to Shang Hai for lunch at this famous restaurant known as " 红子鸡 " in this place the restaurant is so big that the waiter and waitress had to wear roller blades to move from the kitchen to the room that you are located in. In this restaurant every group of people that come in to eat has a room assign to them, it is not like restaurants in Singapore where everyone sit together and eat at the same place. They are famous for their chicken, and you should really try it, it is very nice crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside. After lunch, we went to a book store. The biggest book store in Shang Hai with 7 levels. The prices were very cheap, thus resulting in alot of people visiting the bookstore. Every lever has different types of books and sell different type of stationary, they also have Starbucks on level 2 of the book store. After shopping in the book store for 1 hour we continue our journey to NanJing Street. There were alot of branded shops available which all of us could not afford to buy them. There were also many delicious food stalls available beside the pathway. They sell a lot of stuff but they were quite expensive and our tour guide told us that we could find stuff that they have here in another place at a cheaper price so we only bought a little. The next day which is also our last day in china, we went to the chenghuang miao which is not a temple of course, it is a shopping district . The things there are super cheap and there are also a lot of delicacies there like the smelly tofu and the soup bun. You should really try those food and trust me you will fall in love with it. I especially love the toothpick chicken, they sold it at 10rmb which is $2 it is cheap and nice it have a curry flavor to it. After spending all our money we went to "外滩 " it have two scenery in one place, one side you have the view of the broadcasting station and on the other side you have the American view. The buildings give off the late 80s feel and it was really nice, if you visit Shang Hai you MUST VISIT i repeat YOU MUST as it is really nice that no words could describe it.