Travelog for: Cherry Lola

This place is awesome!!! I came to this lovely block with my friends during the sunset.
I guess It's a secret place cause I can hardly see any other tourists. The people we met are all local residents, they are so friendly. I also met a cat when I was exploring beside the canal. He was a little aggressive..

I felt a bit cold strolling down the lakeside. It seems that Suzhou is much more windy than Beijing, at least in these days. But look at this beautiful night view, no rush to go...

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Jinji Lake (literally Golden Rooster Lake) is a small fresh water lake located in the central part of Suzhou Industrial Park. It occupies an area of 7.18 square kilometers and its average depth is about 2.5 to 3 meters. There are two man-made islands in the lake.

This is Xiangmen at night.
It is the eastern gate of old Suzhou. Originally built during the Warring States Period in the state of Wu.

We spent 3 hours on highway to get to the small county at coast area. The sea just looks like yellow river..
(Yes the famouse Yellow River of China)
I really miss the beach back in CA and I miss my mom

Today is Museum Day! I'm gonna visit Suzhou Museum. 

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The current building of Suzhou Museum was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei in association with Pei Partnership Architects. The multi-year process of designing, building and inaugurating the new museum was chronicled in PBS's American Masters television documentary series in an 2010 episode entitled "I.M. Pei: Building China Modern". The museum has a display area of 2,200 square meters. It has more than 15,000 pieces in its collections. Most are ancient paintings and calligraphy, ceramics, crafts, unearthed relics and revolution relics. It also possesses more than 70,000 books and documents, and over 20,000 rubbings of stone inscriptions. The collection of paintings and calligraphy includes works of masters from Song Dynasty to Ming and Qing dynasties.

I did see some interesting antiques at the exhibition of porcelain. Haha that baby boy pillow is awesome!!! I haven't seen the porcelain pillow before in my life..can't believe people can sleep on it.

Dear moms,
How are you?
I'm in Suzhou with friends now. We came to Pingjiang Road. It's on the top of our must go visit list. I enjoy spending time beside the river with my friends Slowly-Slowly MooseS and Rocky Raccoon, watching boats passing by.

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During Song and Yuan Period Suzhou was also called Pingjiang, so the name was also used for this road. Now an artery road of the Pingjiang historic block, it has still retained its ancient city styles and manners of a water land of "canal goes along with allay when river neighbors to the street" up to now. Among the existing historic spots here are Quanjin Guild, Weidao Taoist Temple, former residences of Tang Na and Guo Shaoyu, as well as the Couple's Garden Retreat, which has been inscribed on the World Heritage List.

Love and kisses
Lola

We also had a lot of fun exploring Pingtan Museum. 

Look at this sculpture at the entrance, the gentleman in the middle clasps his hands in front of chest, a bit like what I always do, it was a gesture to show respect when chinese met in the old days. 
Pingtan created by the work of the Pingtan artists which enjoys great popularity in Jiangnan.
The long history has also laid a solid foundation for its development. Its contents are rich, though the form is simple. "story telling, joke cracking, music playing and aria singing" are the performing techniques, while "reasoning, tastes, unexpectedness, interest and minuteness" are the artistic features.

Although it originated in Suzhou 400 years ago, Pingtan flourished in Shanghai with the development of commerce and culture at the turn of the 19th century and 20th century. After that, Pingtan became a new form of performance by innovating and carrying on the tradition.
Look! A piece of old Shanghai newspaper talking about Pingtan. Mia just bought a new dress on Pingjiang Road, she tried to be more like a Suzhouer.

Ni hao moms,
Suzhou is well known for its gardens, today I went to the most famous one which is The Humble Administrator's Garden.
The garden is located at n°178 Dongbei Street. At 51,950 m2, it is the largest garden in Suzhou and is considered by some to be the finest garden in all of southern China. In 1997, Zhuozheng Yuan, along with other classical gardens of Suzhou was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I literally enjoy chilling on the roof to appreciate the beauty of the garden.
And those flowers are just so pretty!!!
Always love
Lola

I was heading to another city Hangzhou by train.
It used to be the capital of China in Southern Song Dynasty.

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Hangzhou formerly romanised as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. It sits at the head of Hangzhou Bay on China's coast between Shanghai and Ningbo. Hangzhou grew to prominence as the southern terminus of the Grand Canal and has been one of the most renowned and prosperous cities in China for much of the last millennium, due in part to its beautiful natural scenery. Hangzhou is classified as a sub-provincial city and forms the core of the Hangzhou Metropolitan Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in China.  During the 2010 Chinese census, the metropolitan area held 21.102 million people over an area of 34,585 km2 (13,353 sq mi).Hangzhou prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million and the built-up area (including the 9 urban districts and the Keqiao and Yuecheng districts of Shaoxing) held 8,874,348.

Ew.. these figures made me headache. One good way to learn a city's history is to GO TO THE MUSEUM!
X
Lola

Dearest moms,
We're back in Beijing.Rocky Raccoon will keep traveling, his next stop is Halle(Saale), Germany. And MooseS told me he got homesick, he might go home which is Finland soon.
This is a group photo we took in front of the gate of National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, a nice college for learning Beijing Opera, sounds interesting haha.
Safe trip my friend, we will miss you!

Hello moms,
After 10 hours flight I've arrived in Germany!
My final destination is actually a tiny small country in Africa, haha. Guess where?
Anyhoo I have to stay at Frankfurt Airport for 4 hours, so I stroll around a bit...
Look! A duty-free shop! I saw many bottles of wine and some goods of FC Bayern. I'm not a soccer fan, but they really match my red and white stripe, don't you think so?

Hugs and kisses
Lola

Dear moms,

Please don't worry about me. I've arrived in Africa now!!!
May disappear for a while!

Hugs and kisses
Lola

I made new friends in Africa