photo back-log

A few of you remarked upon the recent lack of my accompanying visuals, which I took to be a euphemistic preference for looking at pictures over reading about my thoughts and feelings. Very well, then.


Suzhou, the "Venice of the East". I personally think it would do something for Asian self-image if they didn't continually market themselves from a Western point of reference (although maybe it wouldn't be so good for tourism?) In any case, I spent a day over New Year's in and around Tiger Hill, riding boats and catching cold. Wikepedia (secretly) gives us this:
Suzhou, the cradle of Wu culture, is one of the oldest towns in the Yangtze Basin. 2500 years ago, local tribes who named themselves "Gou Wu" in the late Shang Dynasty lived in the area which would become Suzhou.

to start, and also this:

It is a popular tourist destination and is known for its natural beauty as well as historical sites. The hill is so named because it is said to look like a crouching tiger. Another legend states that a white tiger appeared on the hill to guard it following the burial of King Helü. The hill is sometimes referred to in parallel with "Lion Mountain", another hill near Suzhou which clearly resembles a sitting lion. The hill has been a tourist destination for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, as is evident from the poetry and calligraphy carved into rocks on the hill.


Record snowfall hit China in February, which caused a good deal of grief for travelers trying to get home for the New Year. Mobbing, the national hobby, resulted in a number of trampling-related deaths at crowded train depots. The media had a somewhat detached take on the chaos, and timed footage of thousands of desperate-looking Chinese flooding dilapidated terminals to Dual of the Fates. (I kid not.) Rusty, however, was quite pleased to be snowed in:


Shanghai's got a few hokey tourist spots, but the cheesiest is probably Chen Huang Miao. It was a very old and beautiful temple until someone at some point decided that the space would be more utilitarian as a shopping plaza and food court than as a idyll for spiritual reprieve. Someone else cleverly thought to make Asian mysticism its theme. The original architecture is hence in tact, only all occupied by merchants peddling notoriously overpriced traditional clothing, jade trinkets, ocarinas, lutes and prayer beads.





Apparently, it's a popular set for films and soaps, too.