Silk and stone

In our latest travel excursion en masse (Attack of the Waiguoren III: Foreigners Strike Back!), we went to Suzhou for the day.

Although the eight-million-person city is dwarfed by nearby Shanghai, until about 150 years ago it was actually far more politically and economically important. It was home to a massively lucrative silk industry--the products of whose well-fed worms fuelled the legendary Silk Road-- and its myriad canals earned it international cred as the "Venice of the East."

The burgeoning silk industry still churns out pretty, pricey fabrics for lovers of swanky ties and scarves the world over, although via more expedient and less romantic route. The canals are still there, faithful to their Italian counterparts by being mostly filled with garbage and sewage.

But the city's gardens were the best part of our hurried tour: They boast grotto-like rockeries built to amuse wealthy officials and intellectuals, and enough trees and greenery to feel almost wilderness-y. It was a welcome change.

Suzhou's museum, designed by hometown hero I.M. Pei, is a beautiful complex housing a collection of incredibly well-preserved local artifacts. It was the best example I've seen so far of historical preservation that neither bulldozed nor Disneyfied (for lack of a better term) the so-called history it was preserving. It's probably just my Eurocentric curatorial bias coming into play, but I'm a sucker for artifacts in warmly lit, thematic/chronological rooms with little explanatory blurbs.

*Cough*loser.

The best part, though--aside from following a trio of 60-something Suzhouren who peered in unison at each glassed-off utensil, debating animatedly--was an exhibit of gorgeous, vivid lithographs by Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki. Zao worked in France during the mid-20th century, collaborating with the likes of Francois Cheng and Ezra Pound. To see the exhibit in Pei's building was pretty sweet.

Across the lane from that testament to modern Chinese artistic genius was the preserved headquarters of the Taiping Rebellion--a nineteenth-century uprising spearheaded by someone who thought he was Jesus's brother, and since recruited by the CCP as a shining example of peasants' resistance to imperialism.

The contrast in that 15 metres was striking, to say the least.