There are many stories about how Tiger Hill get its name. One of them is that Su Zhou was once known as the Wu State in the ancient time. The ruler of Wu State passed away and he was buried at the foot of the hill. Three days after his funeral, a white tiger appeared at the hill. Then, people started to call the hill "White Tiger Hill" but then changed it to "Tiger Hill" for convenience. According to Miss Song, the true reason why it is called Tiger Hill is because the hill is shaped like a tiger.
Anyway, there is this pagoda at the hill. The pagoda is actually a leaning pagoda and it is actually built 400 years earlier than Leaning Tower of Pisa. By the way, the pagoda is built to protect the Ruler of Wu's tomb. It was said that his tomb is filled with countless (i think) valuable swords. Until now, his tomb has not been opened for archeology purpose. The tomb is protected in a way that if one want to enter the tomb, they will have to risk destroying the pagoda because the pagoda base is built directly in front of the pagoda. You get what I mean?
After Tiger Hill, we headed to Lingering Garden a.k.a. Liu Yuan. Su Zhou is famous for three things - Pretty girls, private gardens and silk. Private gardens are built by retiring officers in the ancient so that they can enjoy beautiful scenery in their own yard. Lingering Garden was donated to the Government during the Revolution (i think) and then after refurnishing, it is opened to the public. The garden is planned so that during each season, the owner of the garden will be able the best view of the garden from certain spots in the garden.
Gosh...I think I am getting too descriptive
Silk Factory is the next destination. We are introduced to the process of silk making. There are two types of cocoon for the silk - single worm and double worm. Single worm cocoon can be made into different type of clothes while double worm cocoon can only be made into silk blanket. I recorded the process of how the silk was stretched to form the layer of the silk blanket. Ask me if you want to watch. After the introduction, it is time to shop for the silk blankets. Then we watched a Silk Fashion Show where models wear clothes made of silk. I recorded the whole show which lasted around 5 minutes - again, ask me if you want to watch. By the way, one of the models is really pretty le. After the show, we are shown to an area where all the silk clothes are sold.
After shopping, it was time for lunch again. We had buffet lunch at the cafe in the silk factory. It was more English-ish food.
We left Su Zhou after lunch. Most of the people in the tour are happy to get rid of the local tour guide and told Siaw Ma that they prefer him than that local tour guide. The local tour guide pissed me off in a way too.
Arriving at Shanghai, we first went to a Chinese Medicine Museum which i think is more of a chinese medicine shop. The guy introduced a number of chinese medicine which is packaged in a modern way. Then, he did a demonstration where he touched a red-hot chain and immediately applied the medication. It was scary le. Mum and I were not interested to buy any of the medicine so we went to wait in the bus. While we were waiting, we saw an almost-gang-fight. The fight didnt really happen in the end.
After that, we went to a Jade Factory. Again, this is something that I am not really interested in so I ended just standing there looking blankly at the jade displayed while the aunties swooned over the jade lockets, rings, earrings and etc.
We then went to Shanghai Bund to have photo-taking session. By now, my digicam memory and battery are very little so I didnt take much photos. Damn! One of the most important view in Shanghai and I dont get a good photo taken. After that, we went to Nanjing to shop but rain ruined our shopping experience. Ok la, it was drizzling but it didnt dampen our spirits so we still went on to shop for two hours.
Oh! When I was shopping in Giordano, I noticed that the model for Giordano is so familiar. Note that I watch every single available season of America's Next Top Model and I know this model is one of the participants and she was kicked out because she was getting obnoxious about her being very smart. She is a medic student and she actually had a really good chance in winning the competition. I searched for her when I am back here in Miri and found out that Elyse, the model, is now a model based in Hong Kong.
After the shopping, we were hungry enough to finish all of our dinner.
After dinner, we went to Oriental Pearl Tv Tower. We went up 263 meter to enjoy the Shanghai night view. It was really beautiful.
We stayed in Holiday Inn Downtown for the night and the next night. Gosh... It was almost time to leave Shanghai.
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