The Locals, Cool Housing and Random Animals.

Life in this place moves faster than you might think, but the architecture hasn't changed in hundreds of years. Housing you might think to see long gone is not only well-preserved along the murky waters of the canals, but in fact people still continue to call them home. Modernized a tad over the years of course, but you wouldn't know to look at them. The roof of the house shown below is like most of China, incredibly detailed and artistic ... in even the most humblest of structures.

(Below) Some local ladies pause  for conversation canal-side. They didn't mind me stopping to take a picture, a brief smile and It was as if I wasn't even there.

(Below) I was in now way kidding when I said that the residences really do line the edges of the canals. Many of them literally have a back door that leans straight into the water, so if you are fortunate enough to have a boat, you can manouever around 'town' pretty easily.

(Below) Dogs seemed randomly placed throughout the scenery here. Not appearing to belong to anyone, the dog you see below wandered up ahead of us and promptly laid down..almost in the middle of the walkway to take a rest. Perhaps it belonged to those pleasant elderly ladies from the previous image..?

The Canals; Art, Architecture and Other Things.

Even the ends of the bridges were not spared artistic decoration and sculpture. The really amazing thing about this particular lion statue is that Sihing Mike G. is not riding the back of it, as he was greatly-skilled not only in Kung Fu, but also in the art of Lion Statue Taming, ...unique and rare to be sure. ;)

(Below) The wooden buildings seen in previous photos are the ones shown on the right in the picture below. Just beyond the ancient appearance of the canal lies mysteries and modernization, you could wind up anywhere from a maze of thin corridors and watery steps to a bustling courtyard filled with scores of people. Naturally, we stood out in  the crowd (most of us were sporting the 'Alberta Tan', i.e. pale from 8 months of snow), and you can easily pick Sihing Evan out of the throng of workers, residents and tourists.

(Below) As mentioned, just beyond the marketplace flows the water of the canals. I am somewhat surprised looking again at the image below, a more uncommon picture to be certain as here the waters almost lay still and devoid of boats.

Water, water everywhere.

Stone bridges crossed and causeways lined the canals, which themselves split into a labyrinthine series of waterways separating some very interesting architecture.

A Word From Our Sponsor, Baked LoL's.

With exciting flavours like 'Italian Meatball', 'Hot & Sour Fish Soup', and even 'Blueberry', who could resist stockpiling a few bags of tasty Lay's Chips? Certainly not sihing Mike (below). 'Barbecue Chicken' is not what you would expect it to taste like as all of the snacks here have been 'adjusted' for distinctly Asian tastes. Now that I think about it, I wonder how disgusting or terrific our friends in China would find 'Sour Cream n Onion' or 'Dill Pickle' chips.

Grand Canal Boat Tour - Suzhou, China

Next up on our exciting tour-de-force was a trip by boat through the Grand Canals of Suzhou. Narrow waterways and ancient stone bridgework marked the beginning of a historical passage. Long ago, dignitaries, merchants and nobles alike traveled these waters in boats of similar make and now we were to do the same.

(Below) One oar? Really? Hahaha, our boatman had no problem manouevering the sturdy craft along the narrow canals though (years of experience), although we did spook him a couple times getting off the boat quickly in certain spots. He thought we were going to fall in, not knowing we were Chiu Lau's students and thus more nimble than that. ;)

All your ducks in a row.

At one of many toll-booths along our route, I sat up from my slouched, headphone-lovin', man-i'd-love-to-sleep position at the back of the bus and saw this. Bound for a plate of Peking duck perhaps? All sorts of livestock; pigs, ducks, etc. could be seen on our journey in a similar state of transport. It looks uncomfortable but you can be certain this stack of dinner isn't long for the road as their destiny lies on a dish.