Day 3, another long day awaited, but not as long as the previous day for sure.
The day started later than usual as my mom wanted to wait until after peak morning traffic to set out for the ancient village of Mudu. In my head, when my mom mentioned we were going to an ancient village, I was picturing nature, traditional music playing (in my head), and traditional architecture, you know, like small town USA. I must had forgotten I was in China, that hardly anything stays ancient for long.
The village is about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from the hotel. The taxi ride took around 30 minutes, which was a little bit long, if you ask me. My office is three times the distance and it takes me 30 minutes with minimal traffic but maybe that’s American standards and I should be considering all the traffic in China. Finally, we got a taxi driver that wasn’t nosy or talkative. Still, the way he weaved in and out of the lanes made me extremely nervous.
Again, like our first day in Suzhou, we were dropped off at the side of the street. We didn’t have a clue of where the village was. Where we were was a normal-looking Chinese neighborhood street with no signage for the village anywhere. I tried following the Chinese GPS app on my phone but it just led me in circles. We ended up checking out every alley way as mom seemed to believe the entrance to the village was through an alley way and probably by luck, we did find the village through an alleyway.
That day, we visited 3 gardens, all once were visited by an emperor. Throughout the morning, we found ourselves trying to dodge tourist groups as they seemed to be following us everywhere, though I have to admit that I found myself sticking around at times, to listen to the tour guides explain the displays in these gardens-slash-museums.
I found this display particularly interesting. Do you know what this is?
I bet you would’ve never guess that this was once a testing booth. This was the spot where what you’re going to be in life would be determined. Mind you, the exams were not hours. They were days. The students lived, eat, and sleep in that tiny cubicle and if a student must go to the restroom, well, that’s a mark on the exam, meaning you may not be suitable in such position.
I personally am glad I never had to endure this. It would be torture. Then again, back in the day, only men got to be educated.
Other than the museum pieces, there were quite a bit of gems hidden around the gardens from the loaded promogranate trees decorated with lanterns to decorations on the roof to coys in the ponds. As sticky as my skin felt in this humid weather, I have to say, I quite enjoyed these gardens.
