My trip to Suzhou

When I was living in Suzhou I had some good friends named Ethel and Sam. I took this unexpected opportunity of going up to Suzhou for four days and seeing them and a few others I knew. I have a problem with lifts, I don’t like them, although I am okay if I have someone with me, I can deal with them. But they lived on the 28^th floor!! That’s a lot of lift when they creak and groan etc.

Getting anywhere takes time. I got a bus from Alex’s house to the Fuzhou airport, 90 minutes. Some friends from Fuzhou met me for a few minutes and we had a coffee before I took a plane to Shanghai. As I got off the cold hit me. Putian is cold, but as we landed the message came over the plane intercom, welcome to Shanghai, the temperature is zero, please make sure you have warm clothes on.

I laughed….Zero, just what I needed. As I walked off the air bridge and looked over the tarmac, it was snowing. Not much, but definitely snow. I dragged on all the coats I had with me and my thick scarf and headed for the baggage carousel.

Getting to the train to Suzhou is not too hard. I had done it before but was not sure what floor I needed to get onto to walk the 15 minutes or so. I asked at the information counter. One lady said up three floors, and one lady said down one floor. Both were adamant that they were right. I left them and asked the next attendant. Up three floors and walk.  I looked for the escalator, found the signs and walked to the train station.

One of the fast trains, that go from Shanghai to Suzhou in 31 minutes, averaging 250 to 300 kms per hour.

I had not taken into account that fact that it was holiday season. China in its wisdom has decided to make the western New Year a national holiday, so half of China was on the move. Three days in a row is not to be sneezed at. Even with the massive crowds I got a ticket for the next train that left in 15 minutes and ran like mad to get to the platform in time.

Many elevated rail lines going to all parts of the country as they leave the Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai. The trains are all high speed trains, and being elevated they don't interfere with the road traffic, there are no road crossings to worry about, and they have separate lines for trains going to the same places but a separate line for north bound and southbound.

The train system in China has to be seen to be believed, it is just amazing, and Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai, (said hong-chow) is becoming a major transport hub with a massive airport complex. The train I was on took a 2 hour bus ride down to a 31 minute train ride, ambling along at around 320 kms an hour, and you hardly felt as if you are moving.

I got off the train and phoned Sam who was meeting me. Ah yes, the best laid plans, I had got off at a different station. We made our separate ways to his house, but I had to hang around for a while in the freezing cold while he made it back.

Ethel arrived home from work soon after and it was lovely to see her again. We had spent a lot of time together in the past, and spending a few days with them was a real bonus.

At Putian I have mentioned the cold. Well it was much colder up there, but they had the air cons on full bore, pumping out the warmth. Ahhhhhh!!!!  It was good.

From their apartment on the 28th floor you get a really good view. They are part of quite a large apartment complex not too far from the city centre. In China they call it 'the downtown', a phrase we all start to use after a while.

During the next four days we caught up on old times. I also got to spend some time with Twilight, a student from Longyan who is now married and has a two month old baby.  On the Friday she came to Suzhou and we spent the day together and on Monday they came and picked up me and took me to her home in a city close by called Kunshan. Kunshan is a lovely city, new, clean and the cars seem to obey the road rules most of the time. But it was very cold in a house with a tiny heater going when the temperature is around zero or below.

On the first and second nights there it snowed! Not really heavy but enough to make everything white.

After the snow. Unfortunately, not enough to cover the streets, It was all gone by mid afternoon.

On the Sunday night, one of the local businesses called The Bookworm, a place that has meals, coffees and thousands of books in English put on an evening for me and my book. It was so cold that only a small crowd showed up, but nevertheless we had a great evening.







 

The centre of Suzhou city is changing, and not for the good. The whole place has been a huge mess for some years as they build an underground rail system. Line 1 is working, good, clean, fast and not too crowded. You can use your bus pass on the trains as well, and it’s all very cheap travel. But in the city centre they are building other underground lines and the place is just a mess. Many of the old ‘Chinese postcard’ buildings are being flattened and huge tall glass and concrete buildings going up. I think it is a shame to see this so called ‘modernisation’ taking away the ‘Chinese-ness’ of the place. It’s happening everywhere.

On Tuesday it was time to say goodbye to two old friends, Sam who I call Solomon number 10, a guy that seems to have a great many wise things to say, and Ethel, a teacher at a prestigious university there.

Getting a taxi in Suzhou has become a real nightmare, three times I tried to find one and three times I had to wait for ages. The second time was outside a huge supermarket, and not a taxi to be seen. Another foreigner was also waiting, so brazen hussy that I am, I went up to him and asked him where he was going and would he consider sharing. He was someone from the Sunshine Coast, so the taxi dropped him off at his place and then took me out to Ethel’s place. Buses go all the time, but they are chokka block full most of the time. So, on Tuesday morning to get to the train to come back to Putian I needed a taxi. Not one to be seen. After a while I had to go for a bus, a great big long block away, and I made it to the train station just as the train was pulling in.

I had a good flight to Xiamen, got a taxi to the Xiamen train station, had some lunch at KFC, got the train to Putian and a taxi back here. Like I say, it’s a bit of a marathon going anywhere.

So now, I have one more week here, and its pack up again, get to the train station, train to Xiamen, taxi to the airport fly to Guangzhou then on to  Brisbane and if all is well I will have Peter there to pick me up in the car, and I don’t plan to use another bus or taxi for quite some time. The convenience of having a car has really shown itself over the past few weeks.

Just to finish off, Alex’s father is making something with eggs. He beats the eggs. With chopsticks! It takes about ten minutes of constant beating to get them done. I will buy him a whisk next time I am at the supermarket. I have never seen an egg beater here at all, not ever. After another ten minutes of beating I couldn’t stand the pain. I went down to the supermarket and bought him a whisk. Not sure if he will use it, these Chinese people can be a tad stubborn at times. Lol.