CHINA!
A Chinese silk factory, the Masters of Nets Garden, the leaning pagoda on Tiger Hill &
going clubbing in Suzhou!
(Whew!  That was a busy day!)
July 1

TRAVELING TO CHINA ADVICE PAGE!
 

View picture, photo, and story highlights from

Beijing

Suzhou

Shanghai

We visited a Silk Factory.  We got to actually walk right next to the people who were working.  Did you know it takes 8 silk threads to equal one human hair, and that each silk cocoon is about 2 miles long. It was amazing!
       

The Grand Canal.  The Grand canal?  The Grand Canal.  Surrounding the city moat is the grand canal. The grand canal. (An inside joke.)

North temple pagoda was really cool! We got to climb up the stairs in it, up to the 7th level (out of 9 levels), and look down from the top of the pagoda.

 
Left:  The "small" city of Suzhou with just 1 million people.
Right:  A view of Suzhou with Tiger Hill (and pagoda) in the background.

The Masters of Nets Garden was built in honor of the fishermen who live a humble and patient life while waiting with their nets for the fish which are their livelihood. 
It was a very beautiful garden. 
 

Tiger Hill is a actually a leaning pagoda. An emperor was buried there and after he had been buried a white tiger appeared, giving the hill its name, Tiger Hill. It was an amazing climb to get there.   

  
On the left is thousand person rock.  There are two stories about why it is named thousand person rock:

The first story says that when the emperor died, the son hired 1,000 people to dig his tomb and bury him here.  When they buried him, he was buried with treasure beyond anyone's wildest imaginings.  Not wanting the whole country to find out about this treasure (after all, they might try to steal it), the son and now emperor invited the 1,000 laborers to a dinner on this rock.  He served them poisoned wine, and then slaughtered them all, so it's named Thousand Person Rock to honor the 1,000 laborers who were killed here.

The second story says that there was once a great Buddhist monk, who preached things which were contrary to what the emperor wanted the people to believe.  So he was banished and ended up on Tiger Hill, where no one would listen to him.  Being the great monk he was, and a determined prophet, he decided to preach to rocks.  So he would line up rocks and preach to them, and his words were so moving and influential that the rocks would nod in agreement.  Over time, many people heard of this, and they would come, as many as 1,000 people at a time, to sit on this flat place and listen to him preach.  So it's named Thousand Person Rock to remind us of the gift this man had, and how we might also have a gift which could reach 1,000 people.

You can decide which story you like better!

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That night we went out clubbing in Suzhou!  It was a very fun time!