Wuxi has undergone a rapid development where its city landscaping is one of the most structured and advanced. In fact, the roads and streets resemble Singapore’s. Trees and flowers dress up the roads. The traffic lights have timers to tell the motorists how long more are the green lights, like what we have in Singapore for pedestrians.
Ji Chang Garden (Ji4 Chang4 Yuan2)
Ji Chang Garden is a private garden of an old official who has resigned from his post after being demoralized by the politics among the various officials. After he returned to his old home, he missed the mountains and water in Capitol greatly. Thus, he asked his father to grant him 15 hectares of land where he attempted to replicate some of the mountains and waters he has seen in his backyard.
He has effectively adopted the approach of “borrow scenes” (Jie4 Jing3) where the beauty of Hui and Xi Mountains and the spring water are captured in his own garden. Hui Mountain is known as Jiangnan’s first mountain and the spring water is known as Jiangnan’s second spring.
When Qian Long emperor visited the garden, he was very impressed. To persuade him to return to the palace, his officials promised to rebuild a similar garden in the imperial garden. The officials took about 3 years from the study of the design to recreating the garden. When it was finally completed, Qian Long Emperor took a look and never visited it anymore. He commented that the garden was ugly which caused his officials to be very puzzled. They had followed every single detail of Ji Chang Garden dutifully in their construction. Qian Long Emperor explained that the replica did not have Jiangnan’s first mountain in the background or Jiangnan’s second spring following into the garden. Hence, the replica was not comparable to the authentic garden.
Daughters of the wealthy and noble families cannot venture outside the family compounds. To inform the public that there is a daughter of marriageable age in the family, the family will plant a Xiang1 Zhang1 Tree near the main gate when the baby girl is born. When the baby girl reaches a marriageable age, the tree has grown tall enough to show above the gate. Hence, matchmakers and other interested parties will know that there is a nubile girl in the family. If a baby boy has been born, a Ju3 Tree will be planted instead.
(Zhi1 Yu2 Jian3)
A pavilion with three sides in the pond and one side joined to the other parts of the building is known as a Jian3. The Jian is often the best spot to look at the garden and for chatting and playing chess with friends.
City of the Three Kingdoms (San1 Guo2 Cheng2)
The structures and sceneries are constructed by the Central TV Station solely for the filming of the TV serial – Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The settings have been so successfully constructed that they have subsequently been used for the filming of the other period dramas.
To complete viewing the whole area by foot, we would need 2.5 hours. Fortunately, there were small buses which can ferry us from one spot to another. There were ancient battle ships which can ferry visitors out for a tour of Tai Lake. There was also a battle scene enacted, where stuntmen played the Zhang Fei, Guan Gong and Liu Bei to fight with Lu Bu. The fighting on the horses’ backs was amazing and thrilling.
(A Battle Ship which ferrys visitors to Tai Lake)
(The Battle Scene)Tai Lake (Tai4 Hu2; 太湖)
Tai Lake is the size of 4 Singapores. The people of Wuxi make their livelihood out of Tai Lake (Taihu) due to its rich resources – the water can be used for brewing good quality beer, the lake is rich in prawns and fish (known as the three whites) and can also be used for rearing fresh water pearls.
When we first saw a floating layer of green on the Lake’s surface, we mistook it to be a layer of oil and were slightly put off, especially associating this ‘contamination’ with the food which we have consumed in Wuxi. The green water and the floating layer is due to green moss which contains a lot of micro-organisms for the fish, the prawns and the clams to feed on.
Pearl Factory
Wuxi’s pearls are fresh water pearls and are produced differently from sea water pearls. Wuxi’s pearls are produced without having to introduce an irritant to the clams, unlike sea water pearls. In addition, there can be many pearls in each clam, unlike sea water clams which can only have one as introducing more than one irritant to the clam will kill the clam.
Due to the minerals in Tai Lake, Wuxi can also produce purple-coloured pearls.
Our tour guide shared that regardless of the colour of the pearl, when you crush the pearl, the powder will always be white. If the powder is not white, it shows that the pearl is not real. The most expensive pearls are those which are at least 7 to 8 mm in diameter.
Purple Clay (Zi3 Sha1; 紫砂) Factory
Purple Clay is a rock extracted from Yixing (宜興)City. It contained a high level of minerals and thus is believed to be suitable for making pots for tea drinking. It is often brownish or purplish in nature, so it is known as purple clay. Within the sedimentary rocks where purple clay is extracted, there is also a very thin layer of green clay (Fei3 Cui4 Sha1) which is more superior clay due to its rarity.
Both the purple and green clay supplies are depleting and extraction is currently controlled by the government to reduce the rate of its depletion.
When a purple clay tea cup has exceeded its capacity, the liquid will form a dome instead of spilling out immediately. This is due to the porous nature of the minerals. Moreover, after using the teapot for several years, if one were to pour water into the pot without any tea leaves, the water will still contain tea fragrance. Its porous nature means it is very absorbent. Hence, extraction cannot be done with explosives to prevent the rock absorbing the explosive smell. Extraction is done manually by workers.
We were also introduced to replicas of the Flat Light Teapot (Bian3 Guang1 Hu2) made by one of the renowed Teapot masters. The original article was auctioned off at a high price in Hong Kong. To commemorate this great master, his students had made limited editions of the replicas of the famous teapot. The teapot does not have tea flowing down even when we stop pouring. It floats in water no matter how hard one presses it into the water. The liquid that flows out when one pours forms a beautiful arch.
San Yang Parksons (San1 Yang2 Bai3 Sheng4)
San Yang Parksons is the shopping belt of Wuxi. Parksons shopping centre is one of the landmark.
(The view opposite San Yang Parksons)
Local Fare
Silver Fish (Ying2 Yu2) in Wuxi is big and fat, unlike those we see in Singapore. They are sweet especially when used in omelets. White Prawns are small prawns with very soft shells and are extremely sweet.
Another specialty is the sauced ribs where pork ribs are stewed with a sweet sauced. Personally, I feel the ribs are tender but the sauce is slightly sweet.
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