The Ninth Sense: 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~