Suzhou (3), The Lingering Garden and City Gate: Part 5 of South East China

Another of China's Most Important Gardens and the Pan Men Scenic Area

The West Garden Temple, Suzhou

People's Republic of China

B had dropped us at our hotel after lunch yesterday with two instructions. 1) rest this afternoon and 2) we have a late start tomorrow so visit the West Garden Temple on your own before I arrive.

We had ignored 1) but this morning decided to take the short walk to the temple, as directed.

Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) in origin, the West Garden Temple was largely rebuilt in the 19th century after the violence of the Taiping Uprising. We entered along a tree lined avenue leading from the canal and paused to admire two towers, presumably drum and bell towers, though there was no information.

Small tower, West Garden Temple, Suzhou

Arhats and Turtles

From there we detoured into the famous Arhat Hall. Arhats are disciples of the Buddha who have reached or nearly reached enlightenment. The always come mob handed, but here, in a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Hall which survived the 19th century destruction, are 500 almost life size gilded statues, all different. Some carry artefacts or tools, others snakes or reptiles while several are reaching out for something. I presume all have stories, but they are unknown to me.

Arhats, West Garden Temple, Suzhou

The garden, beyond the main Buddha hall, surrounds Fangsheng Pond and its octagonal pavilion.

>

Fangsheng Pond, West Garden Temple, Suzhou

For over 400 years the pond has been home to a colony of Asian giant soft-shelled turtles. According to notices round the pond two of the original turtles, now the size of dining tables, still survive and may be glimpsed by the fortunate. I am sceptical that turtles live to be over 400 (though nobody actually knows) and even if they do, the ever-reliable(?!) Wikipedia claims one of them died in 2007 and the other has disappeared. As turtles only come to the surface to breath twice a day we gave up on all them, regardless of age, and photographed the statue beside the pond.

Turtle by Fangsheng Pond, West Garden Temple, Suzhou

But they had not given up on us - one suddenly surfaced right in right in front of my camera. It was not ancient, nor the size of a table, but was impressive just the same.

A real turtle, Fangsheng Pond, West Garden Temple, Suzhou

The Lingering Garden

We were back at our hotel by 10.30 when B arrived with a car and driver to take us all of 100m to the Lingering Garden.

The Lingering Garden was commissioned by Xu Taishi in 1593 as the East Garden, a counterpart to the West Garden we had just left. It was renamed Lingering Garden (Liu Yuan) in the 19th century as a pun on the name of an earlier owner Liu Su (in Chinese ‘liu’ (留), lingering and ‘Liu’ (刘), a common surname, are different words with different symbols, so it is a pun rather than ‘named after’.)

At the Lingering Garden, Suzhou

The fortunes of the garden have fluctuated over the centuries. It has been destroyed and rebuilt, and endured periods of neglect, but now, along with the Humble Administrator’s Garden (see yesterday’s post) is considered one of the Four Great Gardens of China (the other two are in Beijing and Chengde).

Pavilion, Lingering Garden, Suzhou

The garden has everything you would expect in a Chinese garden, ornamental rocks…

Ornamental rocks, Lingering Garden, Suzhou

….and flowers,….

Lingering Garden, Suzhou

…ponds…

Lingering Garden, Suzhou

… and bonsai trees…

Bonzai trees, Lingering Garden, Suzhou

…and a miniature version of the Chinese landscapes....

Miniature Landscape, Lingering Garden, Suzhou

...beloved of painters ancient and relatively modern - and more impressive than I M Pei’s installation in the Suzhou Museum (see yesterday’s post)...,

A real landscape painting: Cloud Circling the Mountains by Huang Junbi (1899-1991)

...and, of course, there are pavilions.

Another Pavilion, Lingering Garden, Suzhou

I am proud of having learned how to tell Ming furniture (elegant and sinuous) from the chunkier and sometimes over-decorated Qing style (as above) but that apart the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the Lingering Garden rather blend into one in my memory. Perhaps two major gardens was one too many – particularly in November – but would I have been happy to leave Suzhou with one of China’s ‘Four Great Gardens’ unvisited?

The Pan Men Scenic Area

Tucked into the southwest corner of the old city with the moat on two sides is the Pan Men Scenic Area.

Yuan Zhao and the Ruigang Pagoda

Inside the elaborate entrance we met Yuan Zhao. He was, we were told, the Indian monk who brought Buddhism to Suzhou and for whom the Ruiguang Pagoda was built. Neither his features nor his name (which appears on the plinth so I have made no error) are Indian and I can find no reference to him anywhere; Google knows dozens of Yuan Zhao’s, but not this one. The statue is modern, his bald pate polished by the greasy hands of several thousand tourists – I duly added my contribution.

Lynne and the shiny headed Yuan Zhao

The statue faces Ruiguang Ta (the Pagoda of Auspicious Light). Originally built around 250 by Sun Quan, King of Wu in the Three Kingdoms period, it was rebuilt in the late 10th century and again in the early 12th century and restored in 1879.  By 1978 it was a ruin and had become a playground for adventurous or perhaps disobedient children. It was then that a cache of treasures was found including the ‘Pearl Pillar’ we had seen in Suzhou Museum yesterday. The pagoda has since been restored yet again – or maybe completely rebuilt, the Chinese are unfazed by distinctions between restoration, rebuilding and outright fakery. Sadly there was no access to the inside.

Ruiguang Pagoda, Suzhou

Pan Men and Wu Men, Two 14th century City Gates

Suzhou's city walls were demolished long ago in the name of progress. There are, I understand, no plans to rebuild them, as they have done at Datong, and maybe other places, but they have rebuilt several of the gates. Pan Men – and adjacent Wu Men - are the sole remaining originals, though the word ‘original’ must be used with care. The current structure dates from the mid-14th century at the end Yuan Dynasty (except for the tower which was added in 1986) while Suzhou’s first city wall was built in the ‘Spring and Autumn Period’ around 500BC.

Guard Tower, Pan Men, Suzhou

Pan Men is small beer compared with the massive Zhongua Men in Nanjing, here there is only one chamber in which unwelcome incomers can be trapped and slaughtered, but that was probably enough. Attackers could force their way through the wide(ish) gate below where I was standing to take the picture but that would only give them access to the courtyard with defenders lining the surrounding walls. Few, if any would survive to attack the smaller inner gate.

Pan Men, city gate, Suzhou

Wu Men, the water gate is adjacent, but there is little to see,….

Wu Men, the water gate, Suzhou

….though the Wu Men Bridge over the moat beside the entrance to the water gate canal is one of the finest bridges in Suzhou. The original bridge dates from the Northern Song Dynasty (960 - 1126) though it was extensively restored/rebuilt in 1870.

Wu Men Bridge over the city moat, Suzhou
The water gate is accessed through the small bridge at the side, through the currently closed metal gates.

Won Ton Lunch

It was now lunchtime and B suggested we drive into the centre and eat wonton at her favourite wonton restaurant. Central Suzhou is less frenetic than other Chinese city centres, here factories and the tower blocks dwellings of their workers form an outer ring while the centre is low rise and relatively peaceful.

We had two types of wonton, prawn which came in a soup and pork which sat in a puddle of sugared soy sauce - the citizens of Suzhou have a notoriously sweet tooth. Both were excellent though I struggled chasing the slippery parcels of meat and shellfish with my chopsticks. Lynne helpfully pointed out that even the locals struggle and most were eating with a spoon.

Lunch over, we made our way to the north of the city and the railways station which resembled an airport as Chinese stations tend to.

High speed train arrives at Suzhou Station

B had mentioned that many people commute from Suzhou to Shanghai as housing is much cheaper here. The high speed train took us to Shanghai in about half an hour, passing through a continuous built-up area. We stopped at Hongqiao Station adjacent to Hongqiao Airport, Shanghai's second airport - we landed there when we returned from Urumqi in 2010. Here the route swung south and 45 minutes later we arrived in Hangzhou, our next stop.

The Train travelled from Suzhou to Hangzhou via Shanghai

South East China

Part 1: Nanjing (1) Sun Yat Sen, The Zhonghua Gate and Salt Water Duck
Part 2: Nanjing (2) The Presidential Palace and the Massacre Museum
Part 3: Suzhou (1) The7-Mile Shantang and a Mandarin Fish Cut like a Squirrel
Part 4: Suzhou (2) The Humble Administrator's Garden and Other Gems
Part 5: Suzhou (3) the Lingering Garden and the City Gate
Part 6: Hangzhou (1) West Lake, Lingyin Temple and Longjing Tea
Part 7: Hangzhou (2) Nanxun Water Town and Statues in the Street
Part 8: Wuyishan (1) Xiamei Ancient Village
Part 9: Wuyishan (2) Bamboo Rafts and Tianyou Peak
Part 10: Xiamen and Gulangyu Island
Part 11: The Tulou of Fujian

+

Hong Kong and Macau (7 More Posts)

Suzhou (2) The Humble Administrator's Garden and Other Gems: South East China Part 4

One of China's Great Gardens, an Ancient Temple and More

Perfect.
I love complicated
You come me you'd alway
(Legend seen on a coat, Suzhou Museum)

Seen leaving Suzhou museum

The Humble Administrator's Garden

China

In the morning B turned up with the same driver in the same car; he had spotted my glasses on the back seat and kept them safe. I was relieved to have them back.

We set off across town to the Humble Administrator's Garden, one of the finest in the garden city of Suzhou, indeed one of the finest in China.

Suzhou and Jiangsu Province

I was predisposed to dislike the 'humble administrator' (though not necessarily his garden) because anyone who calls themselves 'humble', like Uriah Heap or Emperor Tu Duc of Vietnam (we met him in Hue) almost certainly is not. But the Chinese word translated as ‘humble’ also suggests a level of, at best, semi-competence. Ming official Wang Xianchang was unhappy in his job and was passed over for promotion so in 1510 he threw in his post, bought a cheap patch of land outside the city and planted a market garden - a humble enough occupation.

Humble Administrator's Garden, Suzhou

The story might be believable except for the history of the land. In the 9th century the plot had been the garden of Tang Dynasty poet Lu Guimeng. After a fallow period it became a garden again in the 12th century while during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) it was the Dahong Temple garden. If the administrator was humble, the plot was not.

Humble Administrator's Garden, Suzhou

And then there was the involvement of Wang’s friend the eminent poet and artist Wen Zhengming. As a garden designer he was not a man to settle for a couple of rows of beans.

Humble Administrator's Garden, Suzhou

The garden was perfected, Wang Xianchang died and bequeathed the garden to his son who lost it in a game of cards. The story then becomes complicated and for a century or two the three parts, the Eastern, Western and Central Gardens were under different ownership. They were brought back together under state ownership in 1949, restored and opened to the public in 1952 and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

Bonzai trees, Humble Administrator's Garden, Suzhou

The 5 hectares of garden are a maze of walkways, punctuated by decorative rocks and pavilions, surrounding pools thick with lotus. Trees and flowers sometimes seem an afterthought in such a garden though the lotus would have been spectacular earlier in the year and the sweet smell of osmanthus would have wafted across the garden only a month ago.

Better when the lotus was in bloom, Humble Administrator's Garden, Suzhou

Even in November it was worth seeing, a thought that had also occurred to several thousand Chinese tourists, some in small groups, many following a leader with a flag. In summer the garden must be seriously crowded – a state at odds with the original concept.

A Chinese tour party, all in identical caps, file past the pond
Humble Administrator's Garden, Suzhou

In several places artificial 'mountains' have been raised, the largest a couple of metres high. We paused on one where an arbour was inscribed with a short poem by (I think) Wen Zhengming

Among Mountains, Flowers and Wild Birds
The cicada's churring makes the forest quieter
The singing of birds makes the hills more tranquil.

The same cannot be said for the chatter of Chinese tourists.

When westerners were a novelty it was common for people to sidle up and shyly ask to be photographed with such an exotic curiosity. It still happens in remote regions, but among the more cosmopolitan and sophisticated denizens of Suzhou an excuse is required. Here the photograph was for granny who lived deep in the countryside and had never seen a foreigner. Of course we cooperated, but retaliated by having our own photo of us with them!

Humble Administrator's Garden, Suzhou

Suzhou Musuem

From the garden we took a short walk to the Suzhou museum.

A short walk to Suzhou Museum

I M Pei

B (like the museum’s website) seemed more excited by the museum building than by its contents. It is the work of I M Pei, the Chinese-American architect responsible, among other things, for the 1993 glass pyramid outside the Louvre. His family came from Suzhou, but he was born in Guangzhou in 1917 (he will be 100 on the 26th of April 2017 update: I M Pei died on the 16th of May 2019 aged 102) and spent his childhood in Hong Kong and Shanghai before choosing to study architecture in the USA and eventually becoming a major international architect influenced by Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. Apparently incapable of retiring, he was pleased to be asked to design a new museum for his parents’ home town in 2005.

I really cannot like his earlier Brutalist works. Unlike them, the museum is based on old-style Chinese houses but it is so geometrical it looks, to me anyway, like a kit building.

I M Pei's Suzhou Museum

The installation in the atrium is intended to suggest a traditional landscape painting, but at first glance I though it was a scene of industrial dereliction. I doubt that either I M Pei or the Suzhou city fathers will lose much sleep over my disapproval (yes, I am as humble as an administrator).

Traditional landscape or industrial dereliction? Suzhou Museum

Suzhou Museum Star Exhibits

Among the routine display of old coins, porcelain and all the other things you might expect there are two star exhibits, both found in collapsed pagodas in the days when they were allowed to decay as symbols of the feudal past.

The thousand year old Pearl Pillar of the Buddhist Shrine was rediscovered in 1978 in the Ruiguang Pagoda (see next post). The main body is made of nanmu wood with decorations of crystal, agate, amber, pearl and sandalwood, with carved jade and woven golden and silver thread.

Pearl Pillar of the Buddhist Shrine, Suzhou Museum

The 10th century Olive Green Lotus-Shaped Bowl found in 1957 in the Yunyansi Pagoda is a remarkable example of ‘Five Dynasty’ period (907-960AD) ceramics.

Olive Green Lotus-Shaped Bowl, Suzhou Museum

The older (1960s) section of the museum is in the former residence of the self-styled Zhong Prince of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1850-64) and contains his throne room. I wrote about the Taiping Rebellion here).

Throne room of the Zhong Prince, Taiping Rebellion, Suzhou Museum

Canalside Suzhou

Near the museum is another canal side area like the 7-mile Shantang. B was greeted by a European man she obviously knew. He was a Finn who ran a restaurant and was celebrating eighteen years in China. I asked him if he had expected to be here so long when he arrived. He said he had been sent by Nokia for two years but had not wanted to come and tried to argue them down to one year but once he arrived he realised he never wanted to leave and in the end left Nokia rather than China.

He said his restaurant was No 1 on Trip Advisor and pressed a flyer into my hand. I don't know why he mentioned he had been born in Iran, but as we shared that oddity we seemed to bond and I said we might well return for lunch.

Canalside area near Suzhou Museum

We had a late coffee in one of the new breed of Chinese coffee shops. There were no other westerners around so we inevitably had the place to ourselves. We looked at the Finn's flyer and discovered he was selling meatballs and mashed potato to the Chinese along with other Scandinavian favourites and the odd pizza. Perhaps a visit would not be such a good idea after all.

A Short Trip on a Canal

Boat ride on the canal, Suzhou

We took a short boat trip along the canal. It was a pleasant way to view our interesting surroundings, and very relaxing, though not perhaps for the chap doing the rowing.

Canal bridge, Suzhou

Canalside Lunch

Afterwards B was keen to choose a restaurant for our lunch, but we decided to assert our independence and find a restaurant ourselves. There was plenty of choice and we picked one, sat down and ordered a couple of small, cheap pork dishes that we hoped would make a light lunch. They did, though neither was particularly inspiring and the dishes were too similar - at least they were not meatballs and mashed potato.

Easy enough to find a restaurant along here

After lunch we returned to the hotel. As we had a late start tomorrow B suggested a nearby temple/garden we could visit in the morning and left us with the instruction to 'rest this afternoon.'

Hanshan Si (Cold Mountain Temple)

We may be getting older, but we are not so old we need to lie down all afternoon after a morning's sightseeing, nor are we so helpless we cannot find our own places to visit. Hanshan Si, Cold Mountain Temple, was according to the map, a mile or so down a dead straight road west from our hotel.

Canal alongside Feng Qiao Road, Suzhou

It was indeed a simple walk beside a canal along Feng Qiao Road to the district of the same name. I commented on the flatness of the walk and how it was a relief after all the steps in Nanjing. We found Cold Mountain Temple devoid of cowboys, of any sexual orientation, and mountains - and cold, though it was cool. There was, though, an excellent bell.

Bell, Hanshan Si, Suzhou

The temple had been here since 500AD and is well known in China and Japan because of a few lines by the Tang dynasty (618 -755) poet Zhang Ji

Moonset; through the freezing air the caw of a crow;
By Feng Qiao, breaking my rest, the fishing lamps glow;
To me, as I lie in my boat, the dark hour brings
The plangent repeated sound as the temple bell rings
At Hanshan beyond Suzhou.

It is a remarkable evocation of a scene in so few words. Reading it I find myself pulling my cloak closer around me and shifting uncomfortably on the hard planks of my boat. And it is not only me, at New Year Hanshan is crowded with Japanese visitors who come to hear the midnight bell. The temple has grown rich on their donations.

Hanshan Si, Suzhou

Continuing through the temple, Puming Ta is an eleventh century seven storey pagoda. Apologizing for my earlier comment about steps, we set off up it, but the stairs above the first floor were roped off. We did not miss the climb, but were sorry we were deprived of our view of the Grand Canal. Started in the early 7th century the canal runs for 2000km connecting the rice bowl of the southern Yangtze with the heavily populated but less fertile lands of the north. It enabled China's early economic growth and although built to benefit the north, the south also benefited, and to such an extent that both Nanjing and Hangzhou became the national capital at various times.

Puming Ta, Hanshan Si, Suzhou

I liked the view of the temple roofs, though, even if it was not the grand canal.

Roofs, Hanshan Si, Suzhou

Outside the main Buddha hall was an incense burner bedecked with red ribbons. It can be difficult to tell Buddhist from Taoist temples but usually red denotes Taoism and yellow Buddhism. This, though, was a Buddhist Temple. People were attempting to flip coins through the holes at the top or land them on the upper surfaces. Success would doubtless indicate forthcoming good fortune.

Ribbon bedecked incense burner and flippers of coins, Hanshan Si, Suzhou

Inside the main Buddha hall the Buddha himself...

Main Buddha Statue, Hanshan Si, Suzhou

....was supported by what looked like a jury of arhats (and more of them tomorrow).

A jury of Arhats, Hanshan Si, Suzhou

Dinner in Suzhou

Later we visited another small restaurant in the same row as yesterday. I left my glasses in the hotel so Lynne looked at the pictures and picked a chicken dish and some cauliflower. The chicken looked spectacular when it arrived in a wok placed over a heater, the sides lined with what I would have called puri had we been in India. The chicken came with potatoes, onion, garlic and peppers in a rich gravy while the cauliflower was accompanied by star anise, onion, peppers, ginger, soy sauce, chilli and a lot of oil. Washed down with a couple of bottle of Tsingtao, one of China's least worst beers, it made an excellent evening.

Dinner in Suzhou

South East China

Part 1: Nanjing (1) Sun Yat Sen, The Zhonghua Gate and Salt Water Duck
Part 2: Nanjing (2) The Presidential Palace and the Massacre Museum
Part 3: Suzhou (1) The 7-Mile Shantang and a Mandarin Fish Cut like a Squirrel
Part 4: Suzhou (2) The Humble Administrator's Garden and Other Gems
Part 5: Suzhou (3) the Lingering Garden and the City Gate
Part 6: Hangzhou (1) West Lake, Lingyin Temple and Longjing Tea
Part 7: Hangzhou (2) Nanxun Water Town and Statues in the Street
Part 8: Wuyishan (1) Xiamei Ancient Village
Part 9: Wuyishan (2) Bamboo Rafts and Tianyou Peak
Part 10: Xiamen and Gulangyu Island
Part 11: The Tulou of Fujian

+

Hong Kong and Macau (7 More Posts)

Suzhou (1), The Seven-Mile Shantang and a Mandarin Fish Cut in the Shape of a Squirrel: South East China Part 3

A Modern Train, an Old City, Even Older Canals and a Local Speciality

People's Republic of China

Nanjing to Suzhou by High-Speed Train

After a leisurely start to the morning we were driven the short distance to Nanjing station. Bright and modern, more like an airport than a railway station, we waited at the gate for our train to be called. There are, however various things that are taboo at a Chinese station.

It never crossed my mind, Nanjing Railway Station
Lynne can be seen sitting with our cases below the 'no'.

The high speed train took 90 minutes to cover the 220 kilometres to Suzhou though with four intermediate stops it rarely reached its maximum speed. We were met by a driver and a new guide, B, and driven to our hotel; a vast improvement on the scruffy, unloved premises in Nanjing.

South East China

Lunch in Suzhou

B advised us that there was a good noodle shop just round the corner and suggested that after lunch we might like to visit the 7-mile Shantang which was a simple fifteen minute walk away.

A Small Problem

'Phone me if you have any problems,' she said as she left. We never expected to make a call, but twenty minutes later I realised I had a problem; I had left my glasses in the car. We phoned her, in fact we phoned her several times over the next few hours, not from our aged mobile which resolutely refuses to function in China but from the hotel reception. There was no reply. [‘I’m sorry, I did not recognize the hotel's number and thought they were nuisance calls,’ she said the next day. We get so many nuisance calls at home we readily accepted her apology]. I use my glasses only for reading, and anything else happening close to me, so I can function without them - for a while - and had to hope we would have the same car and driver tomorrow. [We did and he had my glasses, I doubt we would have accepted the apology so easily if there had been a problem].

The recommended noodle shop was clean and cheap, the brief menu written vertically on wooden fillets hung on pegs on the wall. Distant and relatively large they were easy for me to see, but as they were written in Chinese this helped little. Lynne deployed her vast knowledge of Mandarin, 'niu rou chow mien' (beef noodles) and I added 'liang ping pijiu' (two bottles of beer). A smiling and obliging waitress paused while she deciphered our accents and idiosyncratic use of tones and then motioned us to a seat. The food arrived quickly and was just what we wanted.

Suzhou, The Old and the Ancient

Wedged between the huge city of Nanjing (pop 9m) and the megacity of Shanghai (24m), tiny Suzhou, with only 4 million inhabitants is just a big village.

Old streets, Suzhou

Old Nanjing was comprehensively destroyed by the Japanese in 1937, but most of the damage to China's old cities has been done by the Chinese themselves in the name of progress. Having only been brushed by the Taiping Rebellion and the Japanese invasion, the garden city of Suzhou with its intricate network of canals, dismantled its ancient walls and, when the boom times came, was well placed to become yet another Han city of high-rise apartments and flyovers. Fortunately it did not quite happen that way. A Suzhou of tower blocks and industrial zones does exist, it forms an outer ring while inside it the 4km square of old central Suzhou remains strictly low rise. A third Suzhou, a city of ancient streets and canals (preserved rather than rebuilt as is so often the Chinese way) co-exists within the old. Lying a metre or two lower than central Suzhou, it is accessed by steps from many of the canal bridges. The central area, old and ancient, has the relaxed, uncluttered feel of a city on a human scale.

The 7-mile Shantang, Suzhou

Later we walked down to the 7-mile Shantang and from the bridge carrying the old street over the canal we gazed down on an older China.

The 7-mile Shantang, Suzhou

The Imperial Mile and the Chinese Li

The ‘7-mile Shantang’ is not all it claims to be. The name is a partial translation of ‘7-li Shantang’. Older dictionaries defined ‘li’ (a very handy word in scrabble) as a ‘Chinese mile’, though ‘mile’ is misleading. More modern dictionaries agree that it is much shorter though the Oxford and Chambers dictionaries differ on its precise length. The ‘li’, like the ‘jin’ (the Chinese pound) are still used, but have been redefined for the metric age. A ‘li’ is now 500m, so the 7-li Shantang is only 3.5km (2.2 miles), though the sign on the bridge clearly said, in English, that we were descending to the ‘7-mile Shantang’.

The Shantang canal was built in 825 CE on the orders of Bai Juyi, a Tang Dynasty governor of Suzhou. The buildings alongside are old (though not that old) but the uses they are put to are new. We stopped at a coffee shop, a new idea in China where very few people drink coffee (and, according to one source, half of those who do don’t like it, but want to appear modern). We sat at a table beside the canal and drank a ludicrously overpriced Americano, but after three coffee free days it seemed a good idea.

We strolled beside the water, peering down the side canals….

Side canal off the 7-mile Shantang, Suzhou

…until we reached a temple in memory of Bai Juyi. I am always a little sceptical of statues of people who died so long ago nobody has the least idea what they looked like, but no doubt he was inclined to stroke his beard – as wise men have always done.

Bai Juyi outside his temple by the 7-mile Shantang, Suzhou

Behind the temple is a stumpy but ornate pagoda.

Pagoda behind the Bai Juyi temple, 7-mile Shantang, Suzhou

Beyond the temple the Shantang canal enters a larger canal which passes under a splendid old bridge. It was time to turn back.

Canal bridge, Suzhou

A Mandarin Fish Cut like a Squirrel

That evening we went out in search of a mandarin fish cut like a squirrel. According to legend the dish was first prepared 1,400 years ago for an emperor of the Sui dynasty who was travelling through his kingdom and wished to taste the best each region had to offer, and somebody thought of this. No longer the food of emperors it is available to every Wong, Dick or David with a little spare cash. Our search was short; a few doors down we found a tiny four table restaurant with a picture of the very fish on the door. We did not know then that we would see the likeness all over Suzhou.

The mandarin fish is a member of the perch family abundant in eastern China's rivers. It is cut into the squirrel shape, very lightly battered and fried before being covered in a variation on sweet and sour sauce.

Mandarin Fish Cut in the Shape of a Squirrel
Menu seen outside a different Suzhou restaurant

The response when a couple of foreigners turned up in an unexpected place often used to be fear, horror or bemusement. Now it is usually one of welcome. We ordered our fish and a vegetable dish by pointing at the picture menu and when we asked for beer the owner popped into the restaurant next-door to source a couple of bottles of Tsingtao. We were grateful, Tsingtao may not be a great beer, but it is far better than the local Snow Beer which is wet, weak and watery. Perhaps he felt he could not offer that to honoured guests - and perhaps it occurred to him he could charge more for Tsingtao.

Mandarin fish cut in the Shape of a Squirrel
The reality

Our fish was magnificent, though the similarity to a squirrel was mostly in the eye of the beholder – I suppose it vaguely resembled a hedgehog. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal which seemed to please the owner, and a group of old men at the table behind who made an effort to speak to us as they left. It was kind of them, even if language difficulties made our communication symbolic rather than actual.

South East China

Part 1: Nanjing (1) Sun Yat Sen, The Zhonghua Gate and Salt Water Duck
Part 2: Nanjing (2) The Presidential Palace and the Massacre Museum
Part 3: Suzhou (1) The 7-Mile Shantang and a Mandarin Fish Cut like a Squirrel
Part 4: Suzhou (2) The Humble Administrator's Garden and Other Gems
Part 5: Suzhou (3) the Lingering Garden and the City Gate
Part 6: Hangzhou (1) West Lake, Lingyin Temple and Longjing Tea
Part 7: Hangzhou (2) Nanxun Water Town and Statues in the Street
Part 8: Wuyishan (1) Xiamei Ancient Village
Part 9: Wuyishan (2) Bamboo Rafts and Tianyou Peak
Part 10: Xiamen and Gulangyu Island
Part 11: The Tulou of Fujian

+

Hong Kong and Macau (7 More Posts)