Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Suzhou Nocturne

If there is one specific place in China that I've always loved, it would be Suzhou. Is it any wonder that people throughout the ages have laid exultant accolades at her door with some referring to the city as a place close to paradise on earth?

上有天堂,下有苏杭

Who could blame the poets for praising the city so zealously when it has been well regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in the world for centuries with its canals, bridges and classical gardens. Indeed the resplendent place where the goods of all provinces flow. Reason enough that I find myself heading over there again, bypassing other more notables cities such as Hangzhou and Nanjing, to this relatively smaller city. Relatively when it comes to China since even their purportedly smaller cities easily outstrip most other cities outside the region.

Even though it was mid week at quite an unseasonable hour, the colossal railway station in Suzhou still had quite a crowd and I shudder to think how it would be during the mass migration of the Spring Festival. Wouldn't surprise me that the unfortunate would get trampled in the ensuing chaos!

Such a huge sigh of relief once we left the spartan gray neo-Communist building in the outskirts of the city and headed towards the more historical centre. Not only are the streets beautifully clean and well maintained with the dreamy tree-lined canals beside them, even the bus stops are built as traditional dappled grey gazebos with curved tiled black roofs reminiscent of the ancient structures around them.

Finding our way through the rabbit warren maze of narrow lanes and canals took a while!

Just a vision from an old Chinese watercolour painting with delicate gazebos and pagodas interspersed with a filigree of tree-lined canals and backwaters.

Situated as we were in an old lodge right in the middle of the historical district, everything is only a short distance away. Just down the windy narrow lanes overhung with weeping willows and mimosa trees, we would find ourselves in the midst of bookstores, silk houses and souvenir stores selling everything from ceramics to snuff bottles.

Can't argue the fact that the mercantile Chinese, even despite the brief blip of red communism, have always prized materialism.

And did I mention they had restaurants and teahouses practically every few metres from posh dining palaces offering fine foods with entertainers singing Kunqu through the night to the messier stalls by the roadside serving braised chicken feet to dozens in the queues! No matter what they say, the Suzhounese do know how to enjoy life. So it should come as no surprise that bureaucrats and ministers have been known to retire here in the later stages of their lives for the past millennia.




Entertainment and food aside, let's not forget the artistic side of the fabled city.

Didn't take me long to find myself seated on a wooden stool with paintbrush in hand to colour in a traditional Suzhou woman's dress, all while Charming Calvin stood by with a steaming cup of Longjing green tea in hand. Ancient watercolours of Chinese ladies in Ming and Tang costume screenprinted onto silk pillows and table runners for us to paint on. Something Calvin obviously flat out refused to do so - leaving him to while away the time lazing about the store admiring the peerless scenery outside.

What better way to spend a lazy afternoon in Suzhou?

Monday, May 21, 2018

Miss Shanghai

Since this was our third time around in Shanghai with ample enough time to explore at leisure, I had the time to really stroll down the streets and alleyways and soak the atmosphere of this fabled city. Didn't take me long before I made my way down to the Old City of Shanghai, a place a tour guide once teased us about.

Guide : Yes, it's another temple in Shanghai. 
Paul : Good God. Not another temple. 
Guide : Not just any temple. 
Paul : Unless the monks are shirtless and sexy, I think I'll skip it. 
Guide : Trust me, you won't want to miss this temple. 

He was right back then.

Wouldn't surprise me if the traders dressed like this less than a century back. Heck, even I've worn the same. 

And I wouldn't argue with him this time either since I've returned repeatedly to Yuyuan Garden - and the City God Temple within - each time I'm there. Basically the more Chinese part of Shanghai city that wasn't carved away in the more fractious colonial times into international concessions so part of what was originally there remains.

Sort of. 

Monstrous tourist trap it may be with repetitive stores hawking all things Chinese from the traditional arts and crafts to the more kitschy Chairman Mao memorabilia - and on that particular holiday the old alleys were certainly bursting to the brim with haggling visitors - but it was a place that I still managed to enjoy.

Even more this time since I had little qualms over elbowing and shoving people out of my way.



Not that the lil miss Shanghais would even bother since they could be as brash and brusque as anyone else, even dressed in the most demure qipaos. Then again, the local proud Shanghainese would again decry any such association with those they would term country bumpkins.

There is a lack of finesse for sure. Even more obvious when it comes to the surly service received in the teahouses and restaurants around. Smiles are rare indeed, and personal recommendations even less so, something I found alarmingly common here. Just like some of our own reticent Malaysian Chinese back home, they tend to have a stark problem voicing out their own preferences.

It's like if they get the answer wrong I might order them executed on sight.

Paul : So what's the specialty in this restaurant? 
Waitress : Oh it's in the menu. 
Paul : Well I am new here so anything you would suggest? 
Waitress : There's a star at the side of the dish for the popular ones. 
Paul : There are so many so which one would you suggest? 

Usually an order that leaves them thunderstruck with their brain seemingly crashing as they try to process what I just said. Fortunately after a while I got the hang of their dour yet laconic demeanour - and quickly figured out what was good on my own. As usual though there would be those who whine over flavourful oily foods, I found the eating here as usual incomparable.




Thursday, May 17, 2018

Ye Shanghai

It came as quite a surprise to realize, during our efforts to procure a travel visa, that the last time we actually were in China had been almost a decade ago. Has it actually been that long?

However it did take a while before deciding on where to go next with our shortlist of requirements; wanted someplace not too far and easily navigable enough, somewhere not too cold nor too hot... etc. Since we had such fond memories of our last trip to Suzhou and Shanghai way, way back, a return was definitely in the cards to see how much had changed. After his long ago assignment there, Charming Calvin still had some small misgivings about whether the brash mainland Chinese had actually learned to cultivate some manners.

Me, I figured I could be quite as horribly rag-mannered as the rest of them. Perhaps the last time I might have been astonished by their unapologetic brusqueness but this time, I was a little more prepared. You shove me, this time I'll just shove you back, maybe with some peppery insults to boot. Not exactly the ringing endorsement our mild-mannered fellow needed which earned a censorious side eye from him.


Though much has certainly changed in the ever-growing metropolis of Shanghai from the awe-inspiring futuristic skyline to the way digital technology has taken over almost every aspect of their lives with newfangled apps for everything, that blundering brashness of the people with the severe lack of personal boundaries still remains. After an hour or two of being carelessly bumped around in teeming crowds ( Shanghai seriously gives a whole new meaning to crowds ) from the metro stations to the malls, it becomes almost a habit to do pretty much the same with little or no apology.

Perhaps it's with age and maturity that I look at it but I find their behaviour almost... charming though the more fastidious Calvin had far less complimentary words for it. While they do still speak in louder, harsher tones than we are used to, I did find them all extremely helpful. Just think of that grumpy old uncle in the neighbourhood with a heart of gold.

And I suspect most of the proud Shanghainese - no doubt gossiping in their singsong dialect - would vehemently insist that the rougher rabble in their midst were actually newly arrived country cousins.

Everything bright, brash and blinding in the city of Shanghai. 

Probably those were the unfortunate ones cramming together with us as we were all herded in boisterous groups down the main shopping thoroughfare Nanjing Road to the Bund. Only a handful could be clearly seen to be non local; the majority of the rambunctious horde seemed purely to be their very own Chinese countrymen coming to see the future of their prideful nation. After all, where else to get a better juxtaposition of the new and the old in the city with the more venerable grand old colonial ladies on one side of the Bund and the flashier, neon-coloured skyscrapers on the Pudong side; divided only by the Huangpu River.

And that's only if you can get above the mass of flashing camera bulbs as they all snap pictures simultaneously en masse.

Comes as no surprise that it's the Chinese who coined the phrase 人山人海!