The Impression Ton-Li is one of the four famous water towns in China. Most of the buildings are well reserved in this old town but the wisdom and honesty of their old time ancestors are not.
We were supposed to be there in 30 mins. But thanks to the confusing road sign, we took 1 hour to get to the old town.
The Scene
I was surprised by the first sign of the street when we arrived the town. The roads were all paved with trimmed or carved stones. Between blocks are rivers (canals) and lanes. Beside the rivers were willows leaning toward water. Some hand-rowed boats in the river were taking visitors around the town. Roofs paved with black tiles outlined the white walls which were partly covered by vines and green leaves.
Some of the buildings were owned by some generals or ministers at the time of feudal China. The decoration of the windows, walls and interior roofs were very delicate and splendid. It was a pity that our camera went out of power, so we did not take enough pictures, and the ones we took were not satisfactory.
There are 8 gardens to visit in Ton-Li. We visited all of them. After the 4th, we felt they were generally the sam
e. But the autumn weather was so pleasant and we did not want to miss anything in regret, so we visited all the points written in our entrance tickets. We felt the most impressive ones are Geng-Ler Hall (耕樂園)and Tuei-Si Garden(退思園).
People
I was surprised by the first sign of the street when we arrived the town. The roads were all paved with trimmed or carved stones. Between blocks are rivers (canals) and lanes. Beside the rivers were willows leaning toward water. Some hand-rowed boats in the river were taking visitors around the town. Roofs paved with black tiles outlined the white walls which were partly covered by vines and green leaves.
Some of the buildings were owned by some generals or ministers at the time of feudal China. The decoration of the windows, walls and interior roofs were very delicate and splendid. It was a pity that our camera went out of power, so we did not take enough pictures, and the ones we took were not satisfactory.
There are 8 gardens to visit in Ton-Li. We visited all of them. After the 4th, we felt they were generally the sam
e. But the autumn weather was so pleasant and we did not want to miss anything in regret, so we visited all the points written in our entrance tickets. We felt the most impressive ones are Geng-Ler Hall (耕樂園)and Tuei-Si Garden(退思園).People
As I just said, the honesty of the old generation was not well reserved and passed on to their new generation in this old town. And this was another impression about this town. I tried not to eat inside the town but there was no big restaurants around so we bought 2 goose eggs from a vendor. Richy tried to take off one egg shell. I help him with the other egg and smelt something bad. We felt the eggs were rotten. We did not go back to the vendor for a refund because we thought he would not give us rebate but would give us another rotten eggs. Anyway we threw the eggs in a trash can and tried to get the smell out of our hands.
In one hall called Pearl Tower, we went to see a pearl tower model. A very enthusiastic man led us the way and showed us the small model of the pearl tower. Actually there was no need to guide us, because the pearl tower model was obviously in sight. He told us to pay our worship to the statutes on the side table for blessings. Then he told us to donate some money to the glass box holding the pearl tower. We followed his words seriously and finally he took Richy's hand, led him to the side, and said: you are not a big figure nor a small role at work. He continued: you care you family a lot and your life will be better off in the future. He told Richy that in order to receive God's blessings, they would pray for us every day for 99 days and Richy would have to pay $99. I almost burst out laughing but behaved. Richy told him no need. That guy said $10 would also be fine. We still did not pay for this farce. After we left, some other visitors behind us talked about that guy's behavior and said big fish behind was going to be be fooled and hooked.
In one hall called Pearl Tower, we went to see a pearl tower model. A very enthusiastic man led us the way and showed us the small model of the pearl tower. Actually there was no need to guide us, because the pearl tower model was obviously in sight. He told us to pay our worship to the statutes on the side table for blessings. Then he told us to donate some money to the glass box holding the pearl tower. We followed his words seriously and finally he took Richy's hand, led him to the side, and said: you are not a big figure nor a small role at work. He continued: you care you family a lot and your life will be better off in the future. He told Richy that in order to receive God's blessings, they would pray for us every day for 99 days and Richy would have to pay $99. I almost burst out laughing but behaved. Richy told him no need. That guy said $10 would also be fine. We still did not pay for this farce. After we left, some other visitors behind us talked about that guy's behavior and said big fish behind was going to be be fooled and hooked.
Shops
The stores in Ton-Li were mostly similar to the ones in other scenery places in Su-Zhou, but the streets were narrower and the buildings were older here. We did not feel tired walking all day because the weather was cool and the sun was bright but mild. However my feet and toes hurt because I did not wear sport shoes. This gave me an excuse to sit in a pearl store and shop. I always enjoyed shopping some souvenirs while visiting places. I liked to buy something cute and decorative to the house or myself. So I picked some necklaces mixed with raised pearls, shells, and stones. They were not expensive but looked attractive to me. And most importantly they made me forget the pain on my feet. As I was so happy about the trophies I got in this trip, Richy counted the money left in our bag and his wallet. We found we only had $3 RMB left. That meant we have to drive carefully to avoid getting on the toll high way. The links between banks and ATMs were not very convenient in China. We could not get cash on other banks' ATMs but only from our bank's. So, with the poor road sign again, we drove 45 mins home, instead of 1 hour. It only took us 15 mins more than needed on the way back.
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The Monks --Official Monks or Artificial ones?
I forgot to tell you about the monks. The monks in the temple were workers in the travel bureau in Ton-li, not real monks. But they wore monk clothes and shoes and shaved. It was weird to see monks talking on the cell phone, making fun, and chatting with their companions all the time. Friends told us there was even a "monks wanted" ads in the newspaper's job posting page. Official monks are allowed to get married, eat meat, drink alcohol and smoke. Quite an insult to the real monks.
