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Suzhou China
Our tour of China was ingeniously planned by Bestours, Inc. (http://www.bestour.com) so that we flew into the north part of China at Shanghai, and we gradually moved south visiting many wonderful ancient cultural sites. Eventually at the end of the 15-day escorted tour, we were able to fly out of Hong Kong to go home. Suzhou was the next stop on our trip. This area is famous for its classical gardens and water towns. It is called the Oriental Venice. Suzhou, according to our guide, was built in 514 B.C. and was the birthplace of the Wu culture. Therefore, it has a major part in Chinese cultural history. Running north and south up the middle of Suzhou is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Marco Polo was very impressed by the Grand Canal on his visit to China and wrote home about the canal. It is now over 2000 years old, and many parts are still in use. In 486 B.C. they began the canal during the Wu Dynasty; construction was continued by the Qi and Sui Dynasties. The canal is approximately 1200 miles long. According to our guide, it is older and longer than the Suez and Panama Canals. The Grand Canal is on par ith the Great Wall of China as a reflection of China's historical and cultural accomplishments. We had a very relaxing ride on the canal. The weather was sunny and the temperature was perfect. You could see the fish nets placed by the fisherman along the sides of the canal. There could be seen many other boats conducting their business using the canal for transportation of goods. Located at the southern end of the Grand Canal is Hangzhou, and it is noted for its West Lake. For us what was very enjoyable, was the gondola ride around the water town of Zhoushaung. It is one hour west of Shanghai, and it is known as the Venice of the Orient. We had been to Venice, Italy, previously; however, this was a total surprise encountering this wonderful ancient water town. Our tour of the town from a gondola was wonderful and exciting. There are 14 stone bridges, and traditional architecture that has been preserved. The woman who was our Chinese gondolier sang for us after much encouragement and a tip. The boat ride was a perfect way to tour the town. We also were able to walk around the town. The street were very narrow and crowded with tourists and vendors. After a very eventful and busy day it was time to get on the bus to go to our hotel for a much needed rest. We were definitely looking forward to tomorrow's surprises.
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Contributor's Note
This is the sixth of several articles relating our experiences and impressions of a 15-day escorted tour of China we took in September of 2002.
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