Suzhou

We got back from Suzhou last night. It was a nice little city, about the size of Provo I think. Below are a few pictures from the trip. This first one is at the top of a pagoda in the middle of the city. I thought this was a neat sight of the old style town. They are all white and have the old tile roofs. Cool.

Here is the group we were with all day eating some super good Chinese food. See the lettuce wraps? That's the only thing I've eaten here that is similar to some of the Chinese food we have in the states, other than that place down on University. That's exactly the same as here.

This is a massive garden area in Suzhou. Really amazing.

This picture here is all of just after we got mauled by a bunch of Chinese kids that wanted pictures with us. They all took this picture for themselves as well. I feel somewhat like a celebrity here at times. All the sudden you'll turn around and there will be two little Chinese girls standing close as their friend tries to quickly snap a picture. Or they'll just ask if they can have pictures with you, which usually sets off a mad rush of people now willing to ask for a picture too.

This is a famous poem in China. All the Chinese people we were hanging out with could quote it by heart. I like it, but I don't know the meaning.

This is the big guy in front of the pagoda we hiked up. He's happy, as he should be.

This is a sweet rice with beans thing that was tasty. This street is famous for it's cheap special food. It was both cheap and special.

I just got an email from my mission friend that is staying down south with the Hmong-Chinese people. He said that he has now married, or purchased, a Hmong wife. I will be going to visit them soon. Crazy kid.

Oh yes, I can't remember if I mentioned this in a previous blog or not, but I will mention it here because Suzhou really reveals what it is like here in China. The Olympics are coming up in Beijing. As such there is a lot of preperation around China. They even have a goal of not allowing smoking in public places by the Olympics. Fat chance, everyone smokes here, everywhere. Anyway, when we were walking around Suzhou we came across a famous street that we were just about walk down when we were stopped by a security guard that wouldn't allow us to enter. Odd, because everyone else was walking down the street with no problem. Appartenly, as foreigners, we are required to pay 25 yuan to go down this street. Huh? Chinese people from other parts of China are okay to enter, but not us white folk. We tried to work our way in with the point that we can speak Chinese and that should count for something, but he didn't budge. This isn't all though. Later that night as we were trying to find ourselves a hotel to sleep in, we came across a motel that had free rooms, but not for foreigners. Not for foreigners? Huh? This really got us riled up. Does that really happen in our world today anymore? Am I wrong to think that that is just a little ridiculous? I couldn't believe it. I still can't. And China is going to host the Olympics? I don't know how that's going to work. China is definitely the least accommodating country I have ever been to. That's not saying much, as I haven't been to very many countries, but still... I just couldn't believe it. In Europe, everywhere you went you could get by with English no problem. Really, no problem. I don't know about China. If I didn't know a little Chinese I would definitely be lost most of the time. No rooms for foreigners? What?

I love China!