Trip to Suzhou - Part 1

Finally the long awaited post about the trip to Suzhou!

I know I neglected this blog lately, but on Saturday I have my first Chinese language test, and since I`m having an hard time memorizing pinyin (I get confused with Japanese), I decided to concentrate on my study.

But, finally, today I found some time to complete the report about the trip to Suzhou, so here it is!

Suzhou is an ancient city with a 2,500 years' history, and its many crafts are enlisted in China`s intangible cultural heritage, which makes it a great destination for arts and crafts enthusiasts like us. During our trip we had the chance to visit many workshops, and even to look at the making of some items!

Today I will talk about Pingjiang District, one of the places I enjoyed the most, it`s very quiet and the city`s historical feature have been well-preserved.

Suzhou is mainly famous for its gardens, placed on the UNESCO list as a World Cultural Heritage site in 1997. There were originally over a hundred but now only a few exist, some over a thousand years old. We visited the Humble Administrator's Garden, regarded as one of the four most famous gardens in China and a masterpiece in Chinese classic gardening.

Here are some pictures.

Close to the Humble Administrator's Garden you can find Suzhou Museum, which houses, among others, historic works of arts and crafts from Suzhou and its surrounding areas. I particularly liked the stunningly beautiful bamboo carvings and embroidery collections, each piece take not only a great deal of skill and precision but also plenty of patience!

Ivory carving of the eight immortals

Ivory carving

Amber carving

Bamboo, ivory, jade and even fruit shells were used for both utilitarian items, such as seals, and decorative ornaments.  

Facial cleansing pads

Child`s vest

Eyeglass case

Double-sided embroidery (modern)

Even if you`re not interested in art it`s worth just to walk in the museum to take a look at the building itself. The museum`s beautiful architecture is designed by the internationally renowned architect I. M. Pei (best known for the glass Pyramid at the Louvre in Paris), and integrates the local style of the traditional courtyard and garden architecture with a modern geometrical style. The building has white walls and grey tiles and, as you can see from the pictures, it has a Chinese garden with bamboo trees and lotus pond and also a rock landscape. 

The entrance

Bamboo trees

The pavilion

Rockery

A short walk from the museum street lays Pingjiang Street, found on Suzhou maps as far back as the Song Dynasty (960-1279). It runs for about 1.5 kilometers along Pingjiang river on one side and a collection of antique homes with white walls and black roofs on the other, and abounds with authentic Suzhou handicraft. You can really feel the history when you hit this lovely cobblestone lane!

Here we found a Kesi workshop, which is a unique Chinese traditional silk weaving technique, resembling carved artwork (Kesi means “cut silk”). It`s said that in ancient China an inch of Kesi was worth the same as an ounce of gold (and I can assure you that it`s still quite pricey).

Kesi is an integration of the skills of silk weaving and painting, and involves meticulous craftsmanship and time-consuming labor to weave the colored silk. The technique itself is very complicated, but I might try to explain it in a future post.

Here are some picture of the superbly elegant items sold at the workshop and a picture of the craftswoman at work. 

There are many other places we visited, but this post is getting too long, I call it quits for today!

In part 2 I will talk about Taohuawu New Year woodprints, we visited the workshop of Gu ZhiJun, a multiple award-winning artist who merges ancient techniques with modern design.

Now I have to get back to studying mode!

Wish me good luck!再见!

Go to Part 2 - Taohuahu New Year Woodprints