Suzhou

We took a bus ride about an hour outside of Shanghai to Suzhou (which means "the land of rice and fishes"). It was established 3,500 years ago. Marco Polo thought that Suzhou resembled Venice, and indeed, it is a city of canals with houses built directly on the water. We had a wonderful boat trip through the canals. This very complex series of canals ultimately connects to the Grand Canal which brings water from the South of China to Beijing (which is very short of water).

Suzhou is the center of silk manufacture, primarily because mulberry trees grow in the surrounding province. Silk worms feed exclusively on the leaves of mulberry trees. We had a fascinating demonstration of the growth of silk worms and how they make silk cocoons. Each cocoon is a single long strand of silk that can only be unwound by boiling the cocoon. Boiling expands the cocoon and frees the end of the thread. An amazing amount of hand work goes into producing silk fabric; once you see the process, you can respect the prices that fine silk commands.

There are many Kentucky Fried Chicken places in China (as well as all other brands of American fast food). A little Chinese joke is: KFS = "Kentucky Fried Silkworm." In fact, some Chinese people do eat fried worms and scorpions. An amazing number of foods are fried in China. The Chinese joke that people in Suzhou will eat anything.

Unrelated to any specific place in China: There is a "big nose" price for Chinese goods, and a "small nose" price for the same goods. Chinese people pride themselves on their beautiful little noses (which indeed they do have), and they think foreigners like Americans have big noses.