Wuxi, China

We arrived at the Wuxi station, having successfully made it, via train, from Shanghai to here. Richard (our guide whose real name was Hiuming Ren) was there to greet us and take us to our hotel first (Wuxi Holiday Inn Milido Hotel (Meilidu dajiudian)) and then on to an official banquet (thank goodness we were dressed for it!). Wuxi, China, is the sister city to Alameda, California (our home town) and we were traveling with flags and official gifts from the City and also a magnificent picture of Alameda sunsets by JoanAnn Radu-Sinaiko. We were actually going to reduce our case weight at last – Yahoo.

I have to just add here that when we originally set up this trip, I wanted to come and see our sister city in China and was talking with Beverly Johnson, our Mayor and she suggested that we carry these gifts to our sister city and was kind enough (with Barbara Price’s assistance) to send us with letters of introduction as Ambassadors for Alameda. Dr. Stewart Chen had helped us set up a connection in China, Mr. Tu Zhongliang, and between the two of them, this was how our whole China trip was arranged. I also had seen pictures taken by JoanAnn Radu of our wonderful sunsets in Alameda and contacted her about getting one or two to take with me. JoanAnn was kind enough to put together a collection of these sunsets in a large picture which I took with me for hanging in Wuxi’s City Hall and a smaller one for the Mayor of Wuxi. Unfortunately, we never made it to City Hall – our guide indicated that it would not be possible, so we met with other officials at a luncheon…………….read on.

Sister City to Alameda

Off we go to our first meal in Wuxi – wow. What food we didn’t have on the table wasn’t worth having, it would seem. It was like the feast from Harry Potter! Food just kept arriving. Our favorite was a local dish call Mandarin Fish which was wonderful. John and I did try most things, although we did take it in turns – I tried the jellyfish (yuck) and he tried something that looked like worms and turned out to be mushrooms. Fiona was pretty good too; she found spareribs on the table and tucked into them heartily. As it turned out, that ended up being her favorite food in Wuxi.

We were sitting at a table with Mr. Wang Zhuping, former Vice Mayor and now Vice Chairman of China People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Wuxi Committee, Mr. Zhou Yonggen, Secretary General of Wuxi CPPCC, Mr. Bian He, Deputy Secretary General of Wuxi CPPCC, and Mr. Jiang, Director of the Culture and History Department of CPPCC, Mr. Tu Zhongliang, Director, Foreign Affairs Office, and Mr. Huiming Ren, Deputy GM of Wuxi Municipal Service Center for Friendship with Foreign Countries (and our guide). Impressive group of men. Unfortunately, not all of them spoke English – I think they understood some, but only a couple actually spoke it. I had been talking on email with Mr. Tu and it was nice to finally meet him. We talked about Alameda a lot and how kind it was for them to receive us, and about our trip and they were delighted with Fiona. Our lunch was cut short because one of the members had to leave for an important meeting, so unfortunately, we had to hand over our gifts of the City Seal, the City Flag and the fabulous sunset pictures without much pomp and circumstance – but I am sure they were grateful.

On we went to the No. 1 Girls Middle School where we met Hanjun(Andrew) Zhou and the Principal Mr. Tian Sheng Long. This was an amazing visit. We must have been there for hours. We were shown around this immaculately clean girls’ school by the Principal and his Deputy Headmaster, Andrew (who spoke perfect English thank goodness). It has an amazing story. It used to be an all girls school and then things changed in China and the school had to allow boys in. But recently one of the alum (who is now very high in Chinese politics) has added her voice to it returning to its original single sex state which is what its doing now.

This school is housed in traditional looking Chinese buildings. They have a pond and something that is akin to a shrine to sit quietly in. It is not only a day school, but a boarding school too. We went to look at the girls’ rooms and my goodness were they tidy! Fiona was impressed. We wandered around the halls and into a couple of the classrooms. Fiona was asked to speak to one class that was having an English lesson, which she did very nicely, and suddenly there was a commotion next door. It seems that that classroom wanted to know what was going on and wanted Fiona to come and talk with them too!

We were moving along to the auditorium now and unfortunately, going down the stairs Fiona slipped and fell down some stairs. She banged her knee quite badly but was a real trooper and didn’t make too much fuss. A quick cuddle with Mum and she was back up again and off to speak to the high school girls (about 200 of them). We walked into the auditorium and one of the alum (who is now a scientist and was talking about career choices I think) was speaking. When we entered the Principal explained about Fiona and asked for questions. One or two of the girls were brave enough to use their English and ask her something and Fiona was brilliant. There was a lot of giggling going on, but the upshot was that all the girls would love to do an exchange and see what it would be like in a girls’ school in America. I think it would be great for our girls to go to No. 1 Girls School too. I know that Fiona would definitely like to do that.

I have stolen Fiona’s report for that day:

Today I went to the Wuxi Number 1 Girls’ School to talk to them about my school.

It was a lot easier than I expected because most of the girls spoke or at least understood English. I learned a lot about going to a girl school in China - like they go to school on Saturday, and that they start at 7:00 and end at 4:00. I also learned that the reward for that is that they only have three years of high school.

After talking to the girls the faculty expressed interest in forming a relationship between them and JMSG so before we left we left we gave them Ann’s card.

Richard took us to dinner and we learned about “campe” (that may not be the correct spelling). It appears in China, that most business is done over meals. During these meals you drink.

Now I drink wine, and John drinks beer and wine, so we ordered red wine. The Chinese don’t seem to drink socially, i.e. “sip” their drinks. What happens is, the glasses are filled, then someone makes a toast or a statement, and then the glass is emptied – yes, that’s right, its like drinking shots, only with wine. As a woman, I was allowed to sip, but poor John, he had to knock it all back. Once the wine is gone, out comes the beer – same thing. It took us a while to realize what was actually happening because no-one can drink until a toast is made, so if there is silence, someone will toast – pretty much anything – so that people can drink again. At one point we did try asking for white wine, but it was more like Ouzo or Everclear than wine, so we didn’t try that again.

Next day, Richard had a schedule for us, but we had heard about a huge Buddha in Wuxi, so we asked if he could take us there. It was a cold and misty day with rain drizzling in and out. Actually, this was the first rain we had had. The weather so far in China had been cold, but no rain. We headed to the Buddha. A little history here. The Chinese are very competitive, and Wuxi wanted to be better than the surrounding cities and bring in more tourists but they didn’t have a “hook” per se. So they decided to build a Buddha; a Buddha bigger than anyone else’s Buddha. In order to do that, they had to get permission from the department that allows such things and the powers that be in Wuxi knew that this official was 88 years old. When they presented their plans, they told this official that it was to be 88 metres high – what a coincidence announced the official, that’s my age, and so the permission was granted. Now Wuxi has one of the largest Buddhas in the world. Although not built for the usual reasons, it is however very impressive, and has a magnificent fountain to “wet the baby Buddha’s head”. I won’t elaborate on that because for those of you who may visit, it would spoil the surprise. I have attached pictures of the Buddha which look very surreal in the mist, and yes, it was a long climb up.

On our way back down from the Buddha, Fiona and John lit candles (John’s good friend Steve had just died in an accident back home) and Richard noticed. He asked if we were religious, and if we would like to meet the No. 1 Monk at the temple. Of course, I said. So he took us to the Monk’s reception hall and we waited. The Monk came out and sat with us. He had tea with us and gave us gifts – Fiona and I received charms and Richard and John received wooden beaded bracelets. It was so cool. He told us he had never been to San Francisco, but had Monk friends who had. It was amazing – just sitting there, with a Monk, for goodness sake, having tea! Its these kinds of things that have made our trip so special. I asked Richard afterwards if this happens a lot, and he said that the Monk usually comes out to visit with officials (which I guess we are), but not many people know where to go, and of course you also need to be able to speak Chinese.

Afterwards we went to Taihu Lake and Turtle Head Park which was very pretty. We took a boat out on the Lake and Richard was so cold, I felt sorry for him. We had brought warm clothes so weren’t too bad. We met some people on board this junk from Mauritius who told us that when we got to Thailand we should really hop over the board to Cambodia to Anker Wat, which we may do.

By now Fiona was freezing and we were all pretty much done with parks, so we headed back. As you all know by now if you are reading these blogs in sequence, I have been trying to contact Girl Scouts as often as I can. We discovered that Emma Malone had started the first Girl Scout troop in Wuxi, so we asked Richard if he would mind taking us there before dinner and we would catch up with him later. Well, he was not too pleased, because he didn’t know who these “Malones” were and they weren’t on the schedule, and we were his charges etc. etc. We managed to persuade him that it would be fine and he came with us to Emma and Jeff's home.

Well Richard sat for a while watching the troop and then went to sit out in the car with the driver. We told he that we could get a taxi up to dinner, but nope, not happening, Richard stayed.

The troop was great, there were kids there Fiona’s age and she is still emailing one of them, which is very cool. It was a multi level troop with brownies, juniors and cadets. Fiona taught them the flag ceremony and they taught us a couple of songs. It was brilliant. Emma and Jeff asked us to stay for dinner and after a slightly difficult conversation with Richard, he agreed, and we were released for the evening. It was wonderful to sit and share wine slowly! I’m sure Emma and Jeff thought we were crazy, but much like Tawnya and Gayle in Singapore, it was wonderful to get an insider’s view of how things worked. Emma and Jeff also lived in Thailand for several years and were able to give us some pointers. We also arranged to visit them when we got to Shanghai, because Jeff was running a marathon there. Fiona was a happy duck! She made new friends and was going to be seeing them again in Shanghai.

Our final day in Wuxi (more rain) was another official tour of a small town called Jiangyin. Mr. Zhou who was from the Urban Planning department I think, took us up to the Jianghyn Suspension Bridge (to give us a point of reference for what was coming) and then drove us back down to show us this amazing model plan for their city. Traditionally a farming area, the residents of Jiangyin have recently become among the most wealthy in China, due to the rapid economic expansion.

The model of Jiangyan completely filled a room which was probably 100 feet square. It showed things that had already been done as well as their plans for the future including all the port activity, very much like Oakland. Jiangyin is very forward thinking and impressive. This model was housed in a beautiful museum which was kind of ironic – past and future together. We learned about three famous Liu brothers who were originally from Jiangyin, one of whom invented the Chinese symbol for the word “she”. Up until that time, the symbol that was used for “she” was the same one which meant animal. This was also when the fact that the Chinese have four tones in their spoken language, was actually written down and explained.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this visit, I must say Fiona was struggling, and towards the end, even John began to lose the plot. Ah well.

To our last night in Wuxi – what can I say? Richard and Mr. Zhou took us to dinner and again, fabulous food and free flowing wine. For those of you interested in what happened next – you will have to ask John, and ladies, let me just tell you that Fiona and I were not invited to this portion of the evening………

So, our cases lighter, we left the next day for Suzhou, which is billed as the Venice of the East.