Click on images below to enlarge:
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| Train to Suzhou
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| In China, when trains open to allow boarding the crowd pushes forward.
At first, I couldn't understand why people were in such a hurry. After
all, the seats are assigned. Then I realized that some people have
standing tickets. Of that group, the earlier a person boards, the more
likely he or she is to find an unoccupied seat and get to sit.
(Obviously, if the person with the ticket for that seat arrives, the
current sitter will have to move.) It's Darwinian. I guess the people
with assigned seats board quickly at this time too (even though they
don't have to hurry) is because of peer pressure and because they don't
mind the crowd.
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My friend S observed that there was little English in the train
station. It's hard to navigate without reading Chinese, a contrast to
the airports in China.
| Plants and a canal, as seen from the train on the way to Suzhou.
| I think these plants with yellow flowers are yu choy, a leafy green
vegetable. These are more flowers than I've seen on it when it's sold and
when I've cooked it, but maybe this isn't the time that it blooms, not the
time that's it's harvested.
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| The intersection of two waterways, along with a ramshackle building. (I
guess someone lives along this canal.)
| Something about the funkiness of the colors (mainly of the plants) makes
me want to label this excellent, though the color of the water in
the nearby canal puts me off. (Compare it with the color of the water in
the far canal.)
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| Suzhou
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| A canal in Suzhou. Notice the buildings extending over it.
| Di Yin spotted these attractive bus stops, certainly more charming than
the purely functional ones one finds everywhere else.
| A better view of a bus stop. This one, Wang Shi Yuan, is the one nearest
the first garden we went to (the Master-of-Nets Garden).
| An ornament light within the bus stop.
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| Kuojiatou Lane, the lane leading to the first garden we went to. The lane
is filled with tourist kitsch.
| These ovals are played like flutes.
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| Master-of-Nets Garden
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| A map of the Master-of-Nets Garden. It's a small, cozy garden. Some of
the halls and pavilions have creative names.
| A neat feature: use your cell phone to listen to or read a guided tour of
the garden.
| A picture of layers and layers of carved reliefs, as well as intricate
architectural features, above one of the doors in the garden. It's worth
looking at the full-sized image. Excellent? Even the ends of the
shingles are decorated.
| One of the gardens halls. Pretty typical: old furniture, scrolls, stylish
hanging lights.
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| A tree in a courtyard. I mainly took this picture for the patterns in the
(open air) windows on the wall.
| Another hall, this one with more outlines around the central foyer.
| S pacing in a courtyard.
| A portal to an unusual rock formation (plus cave?). I think this is
another view of the rocks on left in the previous picture. The portal is
on the right in the previous picture.
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| Wow, what a fantastic story.
| A row of bonsai.
| I took this picture for the caged tree in the upper-left. Don't let it
run away!
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| A panorama of the pond in the center of the garden.
| A close-up of flower-topped rocks near the pond.
| A cute, camouflaged bridge on the far side of the pond.
| A zig-zag bridge.
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| A shoddy shot of (too dark) rocks on display in front of a window onto
(too bright) rocks outside.
| Sometimes these windows-on-nature shots work out. :) Also, I like the
frame.
| Di Yin says this could be her office. (I think she said this just from
the setting, but the Ming-dynasty-style furniture is nice too.)
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| A side of the pond not visible in the previous panorama (because what you
see here is roughly where I stood to take the panorama).
| Notice the fiber for light running along the edges of the roof? This
garden must look good at night.
| More rockeries.
| An eating room.
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