October 2024 - China Cruise Part 3

We took a three hour bus ride  toWuxi for a three nights stay before heading back to the US.

We took a boat ride on  the canals in  Suzhou.  The Suzhou Grand Canal is a section of the Grand Canal from Hangzhou to Beijing, with was built in the Sui Dynasty (581-618 AD), about 1,400 years ago. Along the canal you can see not only the ancient architecture but also the modern sites.  On one side of the canal, is Suzhou Old Town inside the ancient city wall.  on the other side, are moderns buildings of current Suzhou.  

Then we headed over to the Zhuo Zheng Garden ("Humble Administrator's Garden"), originally built in 1509.  It showcases masterful landscaping, bridges and pavilions. As you can, it's  see a very popular site

Off to another lunch

Then off to a clay factory which are all painted by hand.

The next day started with Jiochang Garden in Wuxi - built about 500 years ago.  I love the bonsi.  Not a bad place to have the family over for a barbecue.  

Then we headed over to Lingshan Grand Buddha which has the largest bronze statue in the world.  Now that's a buddha. The statue is over 220 feet tall.

This is our hotel - Viking does place you in very nice hotels

This is a view from our room

October 2024 - China Cruise Part 2

 Next stop is Pingtan.  This is also in the Fujian Providence and the fifth largest island in China.  It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list in 2001 under Hainan scenic sights.  Because they receive strong winter winds many of the houses are built from rocks in the many fishing communities.  This town is the closest port to Taiwan which China would like to get back.  The Chinese government is building many apartment buildings and building up the town to make it attractive to the people from Taiwan so that when they have been reabsorbed by China, they would have some place to go close to their former homeland.   We visited a museum and a created town site they call Ancient Town which is basically a shopping mall built around older looking buildings.  

We then took a trip over to fishing village which as a reputation for very big winds so they built the homes from stone and need to place rocks on their roofs to keep them in place.

Next stop is Dongtou which is an area that consists of 168 different islands and is one of their biggest fishery,  We visit another temple here which was built in the present,

Next stop is Zhoushan.  This area was settled around 6,000 years ago and later became an important port for the European traders.  It also is important fishery in for China.  We went to visit a fairly new Guanyin temple, had dinner and later that night went to a play outdoors in the rain. I did not get any pictures for the play - it took place on a rotating 360 degree stage with quite the light show.  The play,  "Impression Putuo" is one of seven Impression Show series.   

Last stop in Shanghai. We docked in Shanghai for 2 nights, where we disembarked for the post extension of our trip,

We now move over toWuxi for three nights before heading back to the US.