Continuing from the last post about our visit to Suzhou:
The entrance to Tiger Hill was guarded on each side with these statues. Beats me what the significance is but it’s probably related to some way to way to ward off evil spirits. This culture is very superstitious.
According to our tour guide, some emperor from 2500 years ago loved collecting swords. But he died from his wounds in a war. Then his son decided he wanted to bury him with all his swords so we have lots of weapons in the next life so he found his hill and build a tunnel, and put all the stuff in there. Legend has it this rock is where this guy tested his swords to see how strong they were. Apparently, one of his swords was really strong.
There are chicks in traditional clothing everywhere.
There is a Buddist temple with all kinds of sculptures - of Buddha. Here’s one:
Rik and I veered away from the group and walked through a beautiful forest. There were lots of Bonsai trees.
We took a boat back to…where are we again? Oh! Suzhou.
We were given 1.5 hours of free time to wander the marketplace and shop. But it was so noisy and busy with people. I was soaking wet and my ankle was paining something fierce so Rik wisely found us a second-story tea house with a view of the chaos. We had tea and cake and watched the world go by. I have the best husband.
After resting a bit we went back to join the group. Along the way Rik did some sampling of products. Our tour group calls him The Candyman.
We sampled some “wine” and got a bottle. Rik and a few others stayed up late, sharing their wine. I did not.
- Ruth
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