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| Shi Lu Mall and water features including a water wheel |
In the last two weeks it has been my privilege on two occasions to have been invited to dinner.
The first occasion was on September 15th.
The husband of a teacher here at college, requested that I permit him and his wife to take me out to dinner and to take a boat ride around the City Wall.
This they did as recompense for the recent assistance I have rendered him, in the improving of his spoken English.
The Second occasion upon which I found myself in the position of being an honoured guest, was last night - Friday 28th September 2007.
By invitation no less, I found myself hobnobbing with some of SuZhou's Political and other prominent society figures at the Shangri-La Hotel.
Dinner No.1.
When my fellow teacher's husband approached me with a request for some coaching, I refused to accept any form of payment. Being cultured Chinese folk, the fact that I refused payment meant that they had to find some other way to repay me for my assistance. When the Dinner invitation was first raised, I tried to persuade my friends to permit me to dine with them at home, but as neither of them can apparently cook, they insisted that we had better eat out.
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| Passing under one bridge we found ourselves facing beautiful frescos. |
Since I prefer companionship to ostentation, I insisted that they not take me to some 'flash' restaurant, where the prices would be high, and the surroundings more formal than I prefer. It was finally decided that we would eat in an 'ordinary - common' restaurant, and afterward take the boat tour around the SuZhou City Wall. I felt a little guilty about that, because I knew that they would be spending a goodly amount of the boat ride, but was glad that we were to eat in a common eatery.
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| One of the many bridges in SuZhou |
Well, where we ate was not exactly what I would have called a common eatery. It was in fact a 'fixed price' buffet restaurant, where one could eat as much as one wanted. The three of us could have gone to a common eatery for the same price for 'one fixed price meal' at the buffet. This was definitely going to hurt their pockets.
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| Ancient styles in a modern world |
Well, the food was as good as the decor, and both were magnificent. I really wished I had taken some photographs for you, but sometimes, under certain circumstances, I feel disinclined to take photographs, because it just doesn't feel 'right' to do so.
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| I have shown these buildings before, but not from water level. |
When dinner was over, we went up to the quay near 'ShiLu', that place about which I have previously written, near the city wall with the tower on top. We barely had time to board when the boat began to depart. Unlike the previous occasion when Chiara and I had taken the trip, this particular boat was fully enclosed, and this time I had a camera.
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| Spectacular colouring. |
Having previously done the trip, I had a fair idea which spots in particular that I wished to photograph. The journey is semi-circular as opposed to circular, and the place at which the boat turns around to head back, is by the City's South Water Gate. It is apparently the only 'Water Gate' still in operation in China.
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| The City South Water Gate - the only operational water gate left in China. |
If you've ever read my articles, you know that 'Murphy's Law' is my constant travelling companion. As the boat began it's wide turn, I quickly took one still shot of the South Gate, and then tried to switch the camera to video mode. Well! To enhance our appreciation of the site, the onboard interior lights had been turned off, and as my camera is still reasonably new, I was flustered in trying to find the right setting to enable a video recording.
Finally I found the setting! Turning the camera on, I raised it and began to focus the lens. Just then a wave slapped against the side of the boat, and my friends and I got drenched as water spurted up and in through the open window. By the time I recovered, wiped the lens dry, got the camera working, and focused, I had little time left to do a reasonable video, and no time at all to take any more still photographs.
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| Shi Lu Mall - the minor mall or 'Walking Street' in Suzhou. |
I took about 130 photographs in all, and of those, I ended up with only about 30 that were any good. It is really difficult to position oneself in a cramped space; really difficult to focus when the boat is rocking; and hard to take photographs whilst trying to dodge water spray. Yes! I am talking about a boat ride on a canal - not the open ocean. The number of operational craft on the water combined with the width of the canal, combined with both the small size of our boat, and how low it was sitting in the water, meant that the moderately choppy conditions had severe impact on the boats stability.
Nevertheless, whether one travels by day or night around the city wall moat, one cannot help but be impressed.
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| Water features abound in Suzhou |
Dinner No.2.
This week I, along with the other foreign teachers, was called to the Foreign Affairs Office at school and handed an invitation letter which read:
- SuZhou Municipal People's Government requests the pleasure of your company at the reception of the 58th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China at 6:00 pm on Friday 28th Sept, 2007 in Grand Ballroom Shangri-La Hotel (168 Ta Yuan Road). Dress: Business Attire.
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| Performers at the Gala Event |
I had no idea what was instore for us that evening but I did think it would be at least a pleasant way to start my National Day holidays. That of course was before I discovered that I was required to do an additional 10 classes Saturday and Sunday.
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| Beautiful by Day or Night - SuZhou. |
Decked out in a nice blue pinstriped business suit, white shirt and blue silk tie with gold tie clip, I loaded into the school bus with the others and set off on our journey of discovery.
What a surprise! Murphy of course came along, and between getting in the bus and walking into the hotel, I lost one button on my coat.
We were actually running 10 minutes late, but so what. Nothing runs on time in China! Wrong! We walked into the ballroom as the speaker finished speaking, and everyone began digging into the most spectacular buffet you could imagine.
The ballroom was filled with every race of people you could imagine, and I am sure that most were as unsure as I as to what to do, apart from tuck into the tucker and the wine.
With Five years of living in China under my belt, I know better than to accept wine unless I know what it is, but I guess out of nervous habit, I accepted the red wine handed me by an attendant, and took a gulp - and another and another and another. It turned out to be an Australian Wine manufactured by Hardy's. Delicious!
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| One of the lighter shots to give you an idea of the city wall. |
For an hour and a half, I walked around trying not to look lost, occasionally stopping to chat with the Japanese teachers - in Chinese - and on one occasion finding the new English teacher (from the Philippines) talking to some of his countrymen. (The 3 photographs of this occasion come courtesy of his hip little camera).
Apart from small talk, drinking fabulous red wine from Hardy's Vineyards, eating wonderful food, and munching down copious amounts of deserts, the apparent purpose of our invitations was so that the school could take photographs of us with the Mayor of SuZhou. Indeed, I have to say it was a great honour to meet him, an honour that might have had more significance had I only known in which of the photo ops I actually did meet him. I'm guessing it was the guy who had both an English and Japanese translator trailing him.
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| Close up of the fresco under the bridge. |
Actually it was quite funny. He (I presume it was the Mayor) was told that I was from Australia, and he immediately began talking in Chinese. The Japanese translator was repeating everything he said for the benefit of the Japanese teachers. When she finished, the English translator went to speak, and I said, "It's Ok! I understood!" Murphy's law again - as soon as I said that, the Mayor began saying something about which I had no clue, and then I had to ask for the translation.
I asked Alberto to take a couple of photographs for me of the performers, which he did, and then he insisted on taking a photo of me. Well - it is not the best photo, but the moment I saw it I just had to laugh. It immediately reminded of something I read in the 'Denby Letters' - Letters of a Shanghai Griffin first published in 1911 - about this man's first introduction to Chinese Opera, from which I now quote:
- Letter No.XXI http://www.talesofoldchina.com/library/denby-griffin.cfm
- I turned to the moon-faced maiden who had taken up her position on a stool behind my chair, and was about to ask her whether she had been to any dances lately, or engage her in some equally inane conversation such as is expected of one on these occasions, when she looked me squarely in the eye, made a horrible face, and let out a yell that detached a piece of plaster from the ceiling, which fell to the floor with a crash. Jumping from my seat, I yelled to my friend to get some brandy. "What do you want brandy for?" he screamed. "Look!" I shouted, pointing to the girl, "she's got some female complaint, and got it badly." "Don't be an ass," he roared, "she's singing"; and glancing around at my fellow-guests, I was astonished to observe that they listened to her hysterical screams unmoved - nay, if anything, they appeared to enjoy them. That was my first experience of Chinese vocal music. It is worse than a gramophone.
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| Honestly folks - it is no reflection on the music or the performers. |
I do understand the man's reaction. When I first came to China, I regularly ended up in fits of laughter when I listened to Chinese Opera, and admit that I used to make fun of it. Over time however, it has definitely grown on me, and I have developed a taste for it, particularly the local SuZhou variety.
Well that's it! I hope you have enjoyed these little anecdotes in the life of an honoured guest in SuZhou China.
R.P.Bendedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
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R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www.kingscalendar.com), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China.
Photographic Stories From China
"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.
