The Oriental Venice - ZhouZhuang (周庄)

Few days ago, I read from newspaper that ZhouZhuang was included in the Top 10 Most Beautiful Small Town in the world. It was ranked number 9 and this small town was more commonly known as the Oriental Venice. ZhouZhuang is a water city in SuZhou which located about 1 1/2 hours away from SuZhou old town.

To talk about ZhouZhuang, we must also mention this legendary person - Shen-Wan-San which was a Billionaire during Ming Dynasty. Before he get to be the richest person of his era, he used to live here in ZhouZhuang. At the end of Yuan Dynasty(the Mongolian Empire), he met another legendary figure - Zhu-Yuan-Zhang(The first Emperor of Ming's Dynasty). At that time, Zhu was still a nobody who stray here and there. They became the best of friends in no time, and even as sworn brothers.

Later, Zhu join the Rebel Army and became their leader after getting married to the old leader's daughter. History then marked the end of the Mongolian Empire in China, with Zhu winning the war and became the first emperor of Ming's Dynasty. However, Zhu was a very narrow-minded person who especially hated rich person, even his sworn brother Shen-Wan-San. In the end, Shen was being exiled to Yun Nam and died there.

This was Shen's Water Mound

Shen died in Yun Nam and was never returned to main land China. His posterity set this mound as a memorial of him.

During Qing Dynasty, his great great grandson built this Shen-House.

Even his descendant is so rich~

Very pretty carving and architecture

Wan-San Trotters~ Very very nice~ 

As the name imply, it was related to the late Shen-Wan-San

The texture was soft and the taste was damn good!

ZhouZhuang used to be just an ordinary Water Town, like many other water town in SuZhou....Then one day, a government officer feels pity for the residents here who need to travel a long way for their prayers in temple far away from ZhouZhuang.

He then decided to use all his money to built this temple and make it more convenient for people to pray. Hence, they name this town using his surname - Zhou

Alot of fish~

You can pay few tens bucks and get a boat ride around the town with free tour guide service

Alot of people~ Coz its peak season~

Here is the famous Double Bridge （双桥）

Throw sand pack and win prize~

10 bucks for 10 bags~

Here is what you get~ Always a scam la~ but fun also~ ha!

There are alot of other places we did not manage to visit due to the extreme crowd and time constraint~ Such as the old hut of Shen-Wan-San......

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SuZhou (苏州)

Today, gona introduce three important attractions in SuZhou..... All 3 has its significant historical value and beautiful scenery~

1. Wang-Shi-Garden （网师园）
There is this saying SuZhou's Garden is the best in the world(苏州园林甲天下). How so? In olden days, rich people tend to have fake hills, lakes and even small river in their house. They called this kinda house as Garden-House.... This architecture enable rich family to enjoy great scenery even in the comfort of their own home. Also to prevent ladies from going out from the house as they can basically get everything inside their home~ The 4 greatest Garden-House in SuZhou were all awarded UNESCO world heritage status. Wang-Shi-Yuan was ranked number 3 among the 4 greatest Garden-House.

These were rocks recovered from the bottom of Tai-Lake(太湖).... and the whole parameter was filled with all these rocks of varying sizes~

wow~ They can basically cruise their boat here~

Playing with arts~

Failed apparently~ haha~

2. Hu-Qiu(Tiger Hill) - 虎丘

Before I start with Hu-Qiu, it is very necessary to tell a small historical story. Basically, this is just a mausoleum of an ancient King, which I don't think alot of people knows. But I am sure you know about the person who wrote "The Art Of War-孙子兵法" - Sun-Tze(孙武）. Sun-Tze was the best general who served under the King we are discussing here - He-Lv from Wu Kingdom. After King He-Lv died, his son built this mausoleum for him (His son is the famous King Fu-Cai-吴王夫差). Few days after the funeral, a white tiger went up the hill and sit on the hill top. From then onwards, people call this place the Tiger-Hill.

Very expensive ticket~ Luckily got student price~ ha!

According to legend, the famous Emperor Shih-Huang-Di(The lunatic who built the Great Wall of China) came and raid King He-Lv's tomb and went away with a very famous sword in history.....Yu-Chang Sword(鱼肠剑)....This was allegedly the mark left by Shih-Huang-Di when he tried that sword~

Known as 1000 men rock..... King Fu-Cai killed all the work men who built his father's mausoleum in this place.... Until all the rocks were dyed red~ More than 1000 were killed

Here is the famous Sword Pool

Written by the famous Calligrapher Wang-Xi-Zhi(王羲之)

In 1956, the China archeologist spend 3 days to drain the pool only to find an entrance in the deep end of the pool.....

They however, has no technology at that time to break open the mausoleum.... Legend says that King Fu-Cai burried more than 3000 swords in his father's Mausoleum as the late King was a Sword lover. Thats how this place gain its name - The Sword Pool (剑池)

Built in 900++ AD~

It was tilted 2 degree to the right~ Even after Salvation~

All these aged more than a 1000 years~

During Qing's Dynasty, both Emperor Kang-Xi and Emperor Qian-Long had been here~ Qian-Long even visited this place twice~ These were plaques written by both the Emperor.

Failed attempts...again~

The most famous night market in SuZhou - Guan-Qian Night Market （观前夜市）

So huge that we can't even finish walking by nightfall~

 3. The Han-Shan Temple （寒山寺）

Purely for literature lovers~ Why? It gain its fame from a very famous Chinese Poem (枫桥夜泊). The story started with a famous poet Zhang-Ji who wanted to go to NanJing to take his exam(Ancient people take their exam in order to serve the government as an officer and to join the cabinet). However, due to war, the exam was cancelled. Zhang-Ji was a very ambitious person, failure to take the exam affected him very much. He was then staying near the Han-Shan Temple, and one night, out of immense emotion, he wrote this poem "叶落乌啼霜满天，江枫渔火对愁眠，姑苏城外寒山寺，夜半钟声到客船“.

Again, it was not free of charge ( nothing is free in China~ )

Here was the place he wrote that poem~

Quite a beautiful place even if you don't know the story





Belief it or not, this was written by Tang-Bo-Hu （唐伯虎） ~~~~

3 Idiots~

On our way out, some lady was selling magic cards~

These 4 genius bought 1set each~ In the end realized it is not as easy as she shown~ It still take alot of hard work and practice~ Take your time dude~

This old street was more than a thousand years old~

SuZhou's street has a common characteristic of adjoining the river~

The night view was really magnificent~

Again, a thousand years old wall~~~~

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As for Chinese version entry, please refer to my friend's blog~Enjoy~~~

HangZhou （杭州）

To alot of people, my planning for this holiday was somewhat too over, some even consider it as crazy. How on earth did I came into such decision of going 2 places in 6 consecutive weeks? The story started when I get rejected from my Australia electives application and some cheap promotional air ticket advertisements made their way into my facebook profile page. Thinking that I might have to do my electives in my hometown prompt me to make a second planning. Jiangnan has always been a place I fancied visiting since a very young age. Perhaps all those literature and historical stories I read had always mentioned about how beautiful and breathtaking these places are.

And so I booked those tickets together with a few friends and course-mate only to realize I got accepted by Taiwan Kaohsiung Medical University later. So thats pretty much of my tale on how I ended up being so packed throughout the holiday. Nevertheless, it was still a great holiday for me where I really learned and saw lots of things~ So, no regrets~

There was this very famous Chinese saying that goes like this "Heaven above, Su-Hang on earth" (上有天堂，下有苏杭)......Comparing Hangzhou and Suzhou with heaven, that they are heaven on earth. Thats how beautiful Suzhou and Hangzhou suppose to be. Is it true? Lets find out~

In Hangzhou airport

The most famous attraction in Hangzhou must be the West Lake （西湖）

Probably because of few romantic and sad love stories that took place in this place. Those who are familiar with Chinese Literature will surely find this place very interesting~ Revisiting the place where the plot has been written, being able to feel this place as if you were inside that story is somewhat exhilarating.

Being able to cruise inside this classic looking boat with the famous "10 Attractions of West-Lake"（西湖十景）, together with tour guide telling you each and every stories regarding all these attractions, the best thing on earth~

Lei-Feng Pagoda （雷峰塔）........ The place where white snake was being trapped in "Legend of the white snake"(白蛇传)

Another must visit in Hangzhou~ Just next to West lake~

This is an Imperial Writing of Qing's Dynasty Emperor Qian Long

The emperor used to watch these fishes (maybe their ancestors) here~

The lover of famous poet Hsu Chih-mo (徐志摩) - Lu-Xiao-Man（陆小曼）..... Again, another love story that took place in West Lake~

This was an old Drum Tower during Song's Dynasty dated back to about 800 years ago. The original one has already sinked deep down.... Archeologist discovered it in a search and recovered it~

Listed by Guinness World Record as the largest Drum in the world

Reproduction of the original look~

Dinner time!!!! If you happen to visit Beijing, there is one dish that you must never miss or regret for life - their roast duck........ Only 2 outlets were able to produce fantastic roast duck in Beijing, thats Quan-Ju-De(全聚德) and Bian-Yi-Fang（便宜坊）.... We were privileged to get a chance to try Quan-Ju-De later in Beijing~(Which I will definitely introduce later in my entry)

However, not so sure whether or not this Bian-Yi-Fang was by any chance related to the one in Beijing~

Here come the roast duck~ I have a very strong feeling that this was merely a pirated copy of the one in Beijing~

No doubt the duck was nicely roasted, but the skin was not crispy at all~ A good roast duck must at least has crispy skin~

Pie crust~ eat together with the roast duck, sliced onions and some sauce~

The remaining duck was cooked together into mixed rice soup~

Other dishes were pretty much uninteresting~

Night of West Lake~ A musical show together with some acrobat~

This was my N-times watching such shows~ Applause must be given for their hard work and interesting performances~ But I had seen better~ Nevertheless, quite glad that my first-timer friends enjoy it very very much~

Guess what~ We met one of our junior there! World is small eh?~

About an hour show~ Which brought the night to an end as our hotel was quite remote and well, no chance of night market I guess~

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