THE LAST 2 MONTHS OF MY LIFE IN CHINA

March 17th

The Suzhou Zoo.....the saddest place on EARTH!!!!!!!!!!

I stumbled upon the Suzhou zoo and left almost immediately after entering. They have a fair amount of animals, far more than I expected, but it's so pathetic. All of the animals are in really small cages and in the entire place I didn't see one cage that had a food or water supply. Now, they must eat, since they're still alive, but the nutrition value of what's consumed is definitely questionable. They sell popcorn there and I don't know if they do so in order that people can give it to the animals, but that's what was happening. There is no concept of 'don't feed the animals here'. Considering they don't have food, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I saw popcorn being thrown and oranges, but the one that killed me was chocolate. Who thinks it a good idea to feed and animal something that even humans shouldn't eat?

Not the coolest place in the world!

March 24th

Canals, bridges and a sex museum in Tongli

Tongli is a water town outside of Suzhou, best know for its plentiful bridges and it's museum of Ancient Chinese sex culture.

The scultptures in this place are hysterical. I don't quite understand, but they made for an interesting visit.

I don't understand what the Buddha is doing beside a religious symbol made of penises. So bizarre!

Hey even ancient China had lesbians.

Besides the sex, the city has nothing much to offer, except a bunch of canals. We've got those in Suzhou, but these ones are all over and they make a good picture.

March 31st

Wuxi is a large city just 1 hour west of Suzhou.

Wuxi's claim to fame is a Bronze Buddha about 100km outside of the city.

This is a fountain that is supposed to cleanse the dust from your soul. I now have a dustless soul. Thank you.

These drums have Buddhist teachings scrolled upon them. The say that spinning one barrel is the equivalent to reading the teachings of Buddha. I spun a bunch, so I guess I'm pretty knowledgeable in the teachings of the Buddha.

This fountain is supposed to have pure water that is beneficial to your soul. I think it's the only water outside of bottled water that anyone will drink. I wasn't about to risk it.



Scandalous pictures for the Buddha don't you think?



This is the biggest Buddhist hand in the world (apparently).
It's good luck to touch it. Check out the shine to the bronze.

For good luck I bought some incense to burn. I got the wishes one since I figured it was a good way to get everything else I want...money, health, happiness...the basics.

Here is the Buddha, the centre of attention.
The stairs are built in the same fashion as those at Dr. Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum (in Nanjing). You can see nothing but stairs when you look up from the bottom and nothing but the flat walk area when you look down from the top. It's kind of cool actually.

Hugging the Buddha's feet is also lucky. Too bad you look so silly doing it.

At a park in Wuxi I watched a woman make intricate designs out of melted brown sugar. She can make anything and she does it in seconds. It's amazing to watch.

I got a butterfly. Look at how cool that is.
Tasty too!

On my way to the train station I saw an art student who was advertising his skills. I decided to go for it, and in doing so, I became the first foreigner to have my portrait sketched by him in Wuxi. I drew quite a crowd too.


The strangest part was when this random man who had been watching the whole time wanted his picture taken with me. He didn't have a camera though and just wanted me to take a picture of us. Weird.

April 15th

The Humble Administrato'rs Garden in Suzhou

This is the biggest and one of the most beautiful gardens in Suzhou.

The flowers in Spring are something worth seeing.

Some Chinese graffiti. I wonder who loves who.

There were tons of people at the garden, but the most interesting were these 2 kids who thought it was a good idea to shoot their pellet gun at the fish in the pond. I don't think I'll ever understand that, but I guess they'd just say "boys will be boys."