Wuxi and the Grand Canal
We decided to take a full-day Silver Shadow excursion to Wuxi while docked in Zhangjiagang, China. I don't think this city along the lower Yangtze had ever seen such a beautiful ship as ours, and non-Oriental tourists are rare. Most of us on this cruise were adventurous, and visiting an unusual port is part of the fun of small ship cruising. We all returned to the ship with interesting stories of what we had seen and heard.
Zhangjiagang is the closest port to the Garden City of Wuxi, which was founded over 3500 years ago and was the capital of the Wu kingdom for over 600 years. We rode a bus through the Chinese countryside to Wuxi, where we boarded two boats for a ride on the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal is the world's largest canal and cuts through the center of Wuxi. It provides an interesting look at the city and life on the river. We loved watching the barges and the people navigating them along the river. Many Chinese live on the flat, narrow barges and transport cargo along the canal.
The main canal dates from 605 AD, when it was designed to connect the Yellow River in the north of China with the Yangtze in the south. The entire 1800 km canal was completed between Beijing and Hang Zhou during the Yuan Dynasty (1270-1368), but much of it is filled with silt today. Depending on the weather, only about half of the Grand Canal is navigable, but the Chinese government has stepped up dredging to continue to lengthen the canal. Given the age of the canal, it is certainly a good example of the great engineering skills of the Chinese.
After riding on the Grand Canal, we re-boarded the bus and went to a floating restaurant at the Hubin Hotel on Lake Tai, one of the numerous lakes in the area. It was a typical Chinese meal, with numerous indeterminable dishes, some of which were delicious and others of which were not. I did accidentally try the bean, cucumber, and ant salad. I didn't have my reading glasses on. I spooned up some of the salad, thinking the black stuff was some kind of herb or vegetable. When I put my glasses on to start to eat, I noticed the ants. Of course, none of my tablemates had put any of the salad on their plates. I decided that I should at least try a bite to impress my dining companions. Interestingly, the pickled cucumbers overcame any natural ant flavor, but I decided to stop after just one bite.
We then visited a silk reeling demonstration in Wuxi where the operator of the equipment picked the silk thread from the cocoon and reeled it onto a spool. It was fascinating to watch, but you sure need good eyes to see the thin threads. The silk factory also had a shop attached with a wide selection of silk clothing and gifts.
We wrapped up our interesting day in Wuxi with a visit to the Jichang Garden. This garden was a traditional Chinese garden inside Xihui Park. It had many trails, beautiful flowers, and lots of water. Although it was a nice garden, we did not think it was as impressive as the Yu Yuan garden in Shanghai.
Nanjing, China
The next day the Silver Shadow was in Nanjing, one of the ancient capitals of China on the Yangtze River. Nanjing was also on the Grand Canal, and today Nanjing is a bustling city of over 5 million residents. The city is familiar to many westerners because it was the capital of China in the early 1900's and it was also the site of the worst atrocity by Japan on China during World War II, where an estimated 300,000 died.
Because we had enjoyed the tour in Wuxi so much, we selected another Silversea tour in Nanjing. The tour started at Zhonghua Gate, one of the original 13 Ming City Gates. When in use, this fortress could house over 3000 soldiers in large impregnable vaults. Today those vaults are filled with vendors selling souvenirs. It was like shopping in a tunnel!
We next visited the flower, bird, and pet market in downtown Nanjing. I love city markets, and this one was extremely fascinating. I felt sorry for our tour guide and escorts who tried somewhat unsuccessfully to keep our group together. The market was packed with people, and everyone wanted to see different areas. I could have easily spent several hours exploring the shops and watching the people, but our tour group had to move onto the next site, which was a visit to the Ming Tombs of Nanjing. The tombs in Nanjing have not been excavated, but the Sacred Way leading to the tombs is very similar to the one in Beijing. Six pairs of animals, each carved from a single stone, line the royal pathway to the tombs. One of the animals is standing and the other is kneeling. Although some of the animals such as the lion, horse, camel and elephant were easily recognizable, others such as the mythical kylin and xiezhi were not. Like the Ming Tombs near Beijing, it was a quiet, relaxing place to take a stroll.
Our time in China was over. The Silver Shadow sailed down the Yangtze to the sea. Our Far East cruise was headed to the land of the rising sun--Japan.
