My footprint (green: walking; Blue: bus; Red: subway)
It's June, and the weather has a midsummer feeling. The scorching sun occupied every street, making people have to go through some ideological struggles before going out.
However, just as the Dragon Boat Festival, I decided to go out for a walk.
First, at present, my studies are heavy, so I take this opportunity to relax my tense nerves. Secondly, I am about to enter the workplace, look at the surrounding cities in advance and make plans for my future. Therefore, this trip is not just for fun, I prefer to call it "a mission" jokingly.
The destination of this trip is Suzhou, which is also called "paradise on earth" with Hangzhou.
My earliest impression of Suzhou is the famous a night-mooring near maple bridge:
Crows fell on the moon, crowed coldly, slept on maple trees, and slept in fishing lanes by the river.
In the lonely Hanshan Temple outside Suzhou, the bell that rang in the middle of the night reached the passenger ship.
So even if I deviated from the main direction, I chose Hanshan Temple as the first destination of my trip to Suzhou. This is my obsession with listening to the bells of Hanshan Temple in person when I was studying this poem.
Hanshan Temple
Shansizhong
Hanshan Temple itself is not big, but it is still crowded during the festival. In contrast, the Qiao Feng scenic spot next to it is much deserted.
The whole scenic spot can be said to revolve around this poem, and scenic spots named after the poem can be seen everywhere.
To be honest, if that's all, I'm disappointed. These landscapes are no different from ordinary parks. If it weren't for that poem, I wouldn't be worth coming here.
Qiao Feng
Night parking near Fengqiao Monument
However, in Zhou Jiangfeng ahead, a folk traditional art shop successfully swept away my previous disappointment.
The first "Wang Xiao Paper-cut" closest to the scenic spot made me stop for a long time, from flowers, birds, insects, fish and the Chinese zodiac to a night-mooring near maple bridge, Humble Administrator's Garden and Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival. I feast my eyes on all kinds of paper-cut works.
Although it is called "Wang Xiao Paper-cut", it is his father, Mr. Jin Lin, who is in charge of this shop. Although he is 73 years old, he is energetic and very talkative.
The old gentleman has been making paper-cuts all his life. When it comes to the survival pressure faced by traditional crafts, the old gentleman has some poor and unwilling feelings. First, each of these skills takes a long time, even a lifetime of experience accumulation, which young people can't do;
Second, although it is called traditional culture, it is a problem for young people to make these traditional handicrafts even to support their families.
When talking about himself, the old man showed another kind of free and easy. He got up and took me to a small yard in the back. "It is very comfortable to make a cup of tea and raise flowers."
Compared with the scenery that has disappeared for a long time, these traditional crafts are the most beautiful scenery in the scenic spot, and craftsmen like Mr. Wang Jinlin are the living soul of the scenery.
Wang Xiao paper-cut
At the end of the scenic spot, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is diverted to Jinghongdu, where ferries come and go, just like that year.
Jinghongdu
Suzhou city in the traditional sense is easy to find. When you open the city map, the blue box in the middle is particularly conspicuous-the Outer City River is surrounded by two subway lines and divided into four parts.
Starting from Hanshan Temple, my next destination is this ancient city. This small area has gathered some of the most famous scenic spots in Suzhou, which is good news for foreign tourists.
As my personal hobby, museums in every city will definitely be on my itinerary, and Suzhou Museum designed by famous architect I.M. Pei is no exception.
Nanjing Six Dynasties Museum was designed by the Bayes family. I was deeply impressed by its unique FRP frame structure and ingenious lighting design, and this unique Bayesian style was also displayed in Suzhou Museum:
Gray lines outline the whole building, filled with white walls and decorated with several transparent glass curtain walls. The whole building is patchwork and has a strong three-dimensional sense.
Suzhou museum main entrance
The view of the museum
main building
Compared with the unique architectural features and excellent lighting design, the collection exhibition of Suzhou Museum can only be unsatisfactory in my opinion:
First, the variety and quantity are relatively thin, and I feel that I can't afford the table;
Secondly, compared with the excellent light application in the building, the design of the showcase is unacceptable to me.
The glass cover used in most display cases is too reflective, which will greatly interfere with both viewing and taking pictures. The treasures of the town hall, such as the real pearl relic building and the secret porcelain lotus bowl, are placed directly in the center of the exhibition hall, surrounded by tourists, and serious reflection problems still exist.
In this series, what stopped me for the longest time was this humble little object:
Ivory carved figure boat.
In this exhibition hall with the theme of ivory carving, it is really my first time to get in touch with exquisite ivory products, especially this figure ship, various cabins and canopies, and different figures on board. It is not easy to carve such fine and rich content in such a narrow space.
Ivory carved figure boat
Perhaps the museum in Nanjing raised my psychological expectation. In my opinion, the overall feeling of Suzhou Museum is very similar to that of Nanjing Six Dynasties Museum: both are designed by the Bayesian family, with distinctive architectural features and exhibition hall layout.
As some travel guides say, the biggest highlight of Suzhou Museum is its architecture itself. But maybe it will stop at the building itself.
When you come to Suzhou, you must go to the gardens. Due to the limitation of time and space, the Humble Administrator's Garden in the museum has become my best choice: it is the largest and most famous garden in Suzhou. For foreign tourists, choosing gardens as tour representatives can bear this expectation.
The advantage of being famous is that the quality is guaranteed, but the disadvantage is also obvious: there are many people, very many. The window for taking photos and framing here is only two or three seconds at most, and people are everywhere.
As a basketball fan, "Catchand"
Shooting is a common tactic, and the process of taking pictures in Humble Administrator's Garden is called capturing.
Shoot ":Find the right angle, wait patiently, and finish shooting in a very short gap when people pass by.". ”。
It was because there were so many people that I stayed in a pond near the entrance for a long time. It's also interesting to count ducks with a few children next to you, isn't it?
A view of Humble Administrator's Garden
It's past three o'clock in the afternoon since I came out of the Humble Administrator's Garden. I am walking back along the north-south main road, not far ahead are Guanqian Street and Pingjiang Historic District. These two places are very similar to Confucius Temple and Laomendong in Nanjing: one focuses on modern commerce, and the other focuses on preserving traditional characteristics.
Just to digest the lunch after dinner, I wandered all the way down and found the scenery that best reflects the traditional Suzhou style in this historical block.
On both sides of the criss-crossing water network, the most typical architectural styles of Jiangnan water town can be seen everywhere-stone foundation, white wall and gray tile, and local residents still live in buildings. Compared with those man-made retro buildings, this most authentic life atmosphere is not clear.
Walking, I can't help but sigh: this is what the Jiangnan water town looks like.
Mysterious point of view
The scenery of Pingjiang block
The scenery of Pingjiang block
After visiting this ancient city for a whole afternoon, I gradually began to notice a phenomenon: in this traditional sense, there is hardly a modern building with more than six floors in the center of Suzhou.
As an important measure to protect history and culture, Suzhou has made a good demonstration in limiting the height of buildings in the old city, so that when you walk in this area, you don't have to worry about shooting an abrupt modern high-rise building in the background of historical attractions. At this point, Nanjing is worth learning from.
Outer city riverside
Suzhou University, the most famous institution of higher learning in Suzhou, occupies a large area in the old city, which makes me very envious. Because of time, I couldn't go in to find out, so I had to take a photo at the school gate to commemorate it.
Suzhou university north gate
A city can't be propped up by history alone, especially Suzhou, where the economy is very developed. The construction planning and height limit policy of the ancient city area are more for the protection of history and culture, but there must be something else to prop up Suzhou's economy.
Looking eastward along the map, Suzhou Industrial Park is located on Jinji Lake, which is bigger than Hangzhou West Lake. This highly industrialized and modernized area is the last stop of my trip to Suzhou.
There are many Fortune 500 companies in this industrial park, and industry giants such as Bosch in Germany, Honeywell in the United States, Samsung in South Korea and Hitachi in Japan can all find traces here.
Through the window of the bus, all the way to the east, the scenery on the roadside is changing quietly, and there are more and more high-rise buildings, which are more and more dense.
Compared with the antique of the ancient city, I began to realize the appearance of a modern Suzhou.
Eslite Bookstore near Jinji Lake is the coordinate point where literary works must punch in. I felt this literary style as soon as I entered the door. Warm lights hit the side wall and ceiling of the mirror, reflecting the reader's reflection. Gorgeous, exquisite and elegant are the most suitable words I can think of to describe here.
Eslite bookstore
It's almost seven o'clock when Eslite comes out, and the afterglow of sunset in the evening is reflected on the surrounding towering buildings, showing a harmonious scene. Strolling along Jinji Lake, brightly lit, accompanied by a gentle breeze, the tired body has been greatly relaxed after a day of sightseeing. Ending this trip in this way, as Zhou Jiangfeng paper-cut artist Wang Jinlin said, is "very comfortable".
business center
jinji lake
jinji lake
On the way home, Suzhou subway is very similar to Nanjing subway in terms of platform shape and number of passengers, so it won't be strange for the first time. Vertical and horizontal subways and buses that announce stops in special dialects constitute Suzhou's public transportation network, connecting industrial parks and ancient cities, and connecting history and modernity.
Looking back on the day's experience, I have a general understanding of Suzhou. Different from the traditional urban construction mode with the center of the city as the radiation point, the multi-center layout of Suzhou makes the functions of each area relatively clear and prominent. The bus from the ancient city to the park really made me feel the change of this style. Generally speaking, the surprise of the city is greater than the disappointment. Surprise is the most traditional Suzhou residence in Pingjiang block and the most modern commercial center in the industrial park. Suzhou University can occupy such a vast land in the city center and leisurely stroll through Jinji Lake in such a modern park.
Of course, if you only look at the first half, you will definitely feel my disappointment with Suzhou Museum and Humble Administrator's Garden. What's this called? Want to promote first?
Suzhou, I'm glad you came.