The Humble Administrator's Garden

After failing to enter the Humble Administrator's Garden last week, we strapped the baby to Shayne and braved the big world again on Saturday. It really is a beautiful place best described with pictures. I won't muttle things up too much with my words.

A marked reduction in crowd density.

One of many pagodas and pavilions

Lotus pool, we missed the blooming season

Bridges are often crooked because demons can only travel in straight lines.

It is easy to miss the details

We're sure there is a reason to use round doors, but we don't know it.

Permanent residents

Shayne doing her best impression of a young Chinese girl.

Even in ancient gardens, the cellular service is top notch.

We waited a long time for all the other people to leave this picture, and settled for "only two"

Bonsai!

Clif loves these things. He's not sure why.

Watch your step!

This grape vine is protected from the bums of weary visitors.

Wood carving

Why we left the baby stroller at home: in general China is not wheel chair accessible.

"Heavy Traffic" and a Lesson Learned

Last week was a Chinese national holiday, and nobody worked for one week. It was kind of a twofer holiday to celebrate the anniversary of Mao's revolution in 1949 and the "mid autumn festival." Many people chose to spend their free time at popular tourist destinations. For the most part the Gerke family chose to stay home, but we did venture out for a day trip in Suzhou...and it went terribly.

"We've made a huge mistake"
 

Even after seeing this crazy picture, we decided to be brave and go to The Humble Administrator's Garden with crying baby in tow. This particular garden is nicknamed "The Not So Humble Administrator's Garden," due to it's impressive size and opulence. It is one of the largest and most popular Chinese gardens in a city full of beautiful Chinese gardens. Here is a picture from Clif's solo visit in October of last year:

That picture is from last year, because we didn't actually go into the garden this year. We made it as close as the gate and decided not to fight the crowds on the narrow garden paths. The line to get tickets was super long but there were people scalping tickets for a $1.57 premium and without the wait. We saw a steady stream of people going in, and not so many coming out...so we swore to come back on a day when everyone else was working.

On the Friday before the holiday, Clif took a vacation day and we happened to visit the same location. On that day, ominous rain clouds sent us home early but it gave a unique perspective of what a holiday can do to crowd density. Here are two pictures, one taken the day before the holiday officially started and the other was taken during the holiday. See if you can guess which is which.

Those pictures were taken at approximately the same location: on the street in front of the garden - not even in the garden itself. There are a lot of people in China, and when they have time to recreate they seem to enjoy doing it in the company of others.

We ended up strolling through the crowd and then calling the driver back to get us - I doubt he even had time to park. He chuckled when we jumped in the van and used one of his few English phrases: "heavy traffic."

For the next holiday we'll leave the country or stay home.

This Tea Comes with Frills

There are certain perks to living in China, and having access to abundant amounts of delicious green tea is one of them. Loose leaf tea is common, and the most fun to brew. I love to spend a small amount of my work day watching tea brew. The leaves start out dry and then expand as they rehydrate. Small residual currents in the water can make watching tea brew about as interesting as a lava lamp.

 It only requires access to hot water and some way to filter the leaves off the finished product. In my sample video, I've used a specialized tea mug that comes with a metal screen (you'll see at the end how well it doesn't work) but other contraptions such as french presses can work too. Some of the professionals use their teeth to strain out the leaves, and chew the remains like whole leaf tobacco.


I'm not expert enough to pick out a good tea until it's been brewed (and poured in my mouth) and I couldn't name any specific type. The term "green tea" seems to refer to any tea that is green. Some has huge broad leaves, other teas have small slender leaves and I've seen some that include flowers or other frills. There are certain types from certain regions of China that are "famous" and I'm trying to learn by sampling as many as possible and trying to remember the Chinese characters for each.

Regardless of the tea origin, one important factor is to not over steep the tea. Leaving it too long or using too little water results in bitterness. The batch I made for this video was deliciously brewed at ten minutes. It is unlike anything you'll get in a bag from Lipton.

A taste for good tea is one of the many small effects China will have on my life. Will I be disappointed after returning to the states? Or will I find a local source for "broad leaf green tea with frills?" I've already got the mug...