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Suzhou |
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Master of the Nets Garden
Suzhou (pronounced sue-joe) is known for its gardens, and Master of the Nets is considered the
best. Unfortunately, it was the only one we had time to see. We had only a morning in
Suzhou and needed at least a full day.
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We stayed in the
Suzhou Sheraton, and it was lovely, quite deluxe, albeit the floor plan was more than a little
confusing. |
North Temple Pagoda
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We climbed to the top of this nine story pagoda on the
outskirts of Suzhou for a great view of the city. |
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Buddha at North Temple Pagoda |
Silk
In addition to its gardens, Suzhou is known for silk, and there are two
mandatory stops on the tour route: a Silk Factory, and an Embroidery Factory.
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Farmer's houses on the Grand Canal leading to Suzhou.
The farmers reserve an entire room just to raise silkworms and often get up in the middle of the night to fetch them fresh
mulberry leaves, the only thing they will eat. |
Silk Factory
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Workers making silk threads from cocoons, incredible.
Each cocoon is threaded on a bobbin that unwinds its silk filaments. Above the bobbins, the filaments
from many cocoons are merged to form a single thread. |
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The threaded cocoons bounce in the water, and when
they stop bouncing, the worker removes them and threads on a new one. The threads are so thin, and
the girl's hands are so fast, the process is almost invisible. |
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Double cocoons are used to make silk quilts. The newly
made quilts must be stretched out, and it's much more difficult than it looks - we tried!
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Of course we ended up buying - silk quilts, covers, matching pillowcases,
and children's clothes. The prices were a bargain, but the shipping costs were high.
Fortunately, our local guide Sue offered to mail our quilts herself for a much better price, and we were
happy to take her up on it.
Embroidery Factory
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The workers here embroider beautiful pictures and are considered artists; they train for six years, longer than doctors. It was almost impossible to choose from all of the beautiful pictures for sale.
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The threads being used to create the picture above.
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A finished picture. The artist's signature is at the bottom left.. |
Buying Embroidered Pictures
Our tour guide advised us to wait for the factory to buy embroidered pictures, and she was partially right. The quality there was the
best, but the prices were high as well. So get the good stuff there, but don't hesitate to buy
souvenirs elsewhere. We passed up some good deals waiting for the factory and regretted it.
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