Have to say I'm rather enjoying the beginning of this holiday break. Shanghai last week and now Tongli this week. From the gigantic to the miniscule. I'm getting used to buying tickets and catching the fast trains in China now. Still ponder over how the trains can be either traveling at 100 - 300 Km/hour but it doesn't feel any different inside not does it affect your view out the window. I'm sure there is a perfectly good scientific explanation but it still makes me marvel at modern technology.

So where and what is Tongli I hear you ask...... One of the many canal towns dotted along the Grand Canal, Tongli is a truly beautiful place to relax and explore. It is located about 20 kms from Suzhou and about 80 kms from Shanghai. The town is divided by the canal, and criss-crossed by a series of ancient stone bridges, making the town like something out of an ancient Chinese movie or story. The picturesque old town of Tongli, once a small fishing village, dates back at least to the Tang dynasty. With their whitewashed walls, black tiled roofs, carved wooden windows and elegant wood structures, the buildings feature the harmonious combination of residential buildings and gardens.

I arrived at about 1000 yesterday and it was already well over 30 degrees and it only got hotter and hotter as the day progressed……. Was told it reached 39 degrees. So glad I opted to stay overnight as I did not have to rush around to see everything in one day. Your entrance ticket to the ancient town gives you access to 10 of the many attractions and covers the key ones. It would be quite achievable to see all the key sights in a day but not recommended in the heat of summer!! Upon first entering the town it all looks a bit touristy for the first few streets and I thought….oh no…..all this way for a tourist trap! Not far into the town though and you start to feel the history literally seeping out of the buildings around you.

I highly recommend visiting mid week if possible as even though it is tourist season here there were hardly any people about and therefore no waiting in lines, being pushed and shoved etc. Plenty of space and time moves slowly but apparently at weekends it is a completely different story.

Naturally when the opportunity arises I always seem to play dress-ups in China and think I'm getting my way through most of the dynasties now and Tongli was no different. This time I had the chance to be gowned up as a Ming Dynasty empress and had heaps of photos taken both by the professional photographer and the hundreds of Chinese tourists who seemed to appear as soon as I was in costume!!! In fact at one stage I think every tourist in town was there to look and take photos much to the amusement of the locals!!!

Dining was easy with plenty of canal side cafes to choose from. Interestingly the locals seemed to take great interest in what I ate and at dinner they could tell me what I had eaten at lunchtime!! Today was no different with each one offering me different foods to try and of course had to be washed down with beer.....trust me its the only thing to quench your thirst in this hot weather. A great place to take a break from sightseeing is the historic Nanyuan Teahouse set alongside the banks of the grand canal. Although a tea house has stood on this site for several dynasties, the current one is over a hundred years old, and was a favourite meeting place for local activists and reformers at the turn of the century. Climb up to the second story, where broad windows look out over the towns slate rooftops and waters of the canal.

I stayed at the International Youth Hostel 234 Yuhang St which has a history all of its own. Walking into Tongli International Youth Hostel, you walk into Zongyan Fan's changing yet everlasting story. Zongyan Fan, originally from present-day Suzhou, was a great reformist philosopher, military strategist, and literary thinker in the Northern Song Dynasty over 1000 years ago. He was appointed a post in the local Suzhou government and made his constituents happy. He is still well-known to this day for his quote saying people should worry before there's reason to worry and play after there's reason to play. At Mt. Tianping there is a monument/museum devoted to him. Some of his descendants moved to Tongli and lived in what is now the Tongli International Youth Hostel. Sitting by the window enjoying a drink, and watching people stroll by, you can feel yourself becoming a part of one of the few last ancient and authentic but still accessible spots in Southern China. I was given a "family" room complete with a resplendent 4 poster bed which made the modern bathroom look out of place. Mind you the bed was very similar to one I saw in the China Sex Museum (more about that later!)specially designed for high class prostitutes!!! Never the less it was a wonderful place to stay with friendly locals, cheap drinks and a cosy atmosphere.


Introduction to TONGLI: 同里

Tongli is richly deserving of its nickname not only as the "Little Venice of the East", but also as an "Open-Air Museum of Ancient Architectures", thanks to its many buildings – including temples and grandiose former residences, replete with scholar gardens, of illustrious personages who lived here – and its bluestone alleys and stone arch bridges constructed during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty period, though the town of Tongli actually dates back to the Song (CE 960-1279) Dynasty.

15 small river lanes crisscrossed the town, over which spans around 49 stone bridges in variety of styles. Bridges are important parts of the town. The most famous bridges among the 49 bridges in Tongli are the three bridges called Taiping (peace) 太平桥), Jili (luck) 吉利桥 and Changqing (celebration) 长庆桥 bridges, which has been important landmarks of the place and regarded as the sacred architecture by the locals. They are known as Ternate Bridges, as they cross three rivers at their confluence and form a natural ring road.Whenever there is an important occasion, such as wedding, people would like to walk through the three bridges, which is supposed to bring peace, fortune and happiness in their lives. The oldest bridge in Tongli is Siben (Reflecting Origin) Bridge, which was built in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), while the smallest bridge is called Dubu (Single Step) Bridge and is only one-and-a-half meters long and less than one meter wide.

Although many of the inhabitants of Tongli are now engaged in serving tourists, the town still maintains its original identity, surrounded by rice paddies (with its mild climate and a stable supply of water, growing rice has been the most natural thing to do in Tongli for more than a millennium). Tongli's fishermen still sail out to the lakes every day with their fishing birds (cormorants) that continue to do what they have always done ever since they were trained by their masters, i.e., they dive to the bottom of the lake and return with – a bit of luck – a fish.

I will give you a brief outline of a few of the historical and cultural places of significance that I visited. Really the joy of being in Tongli is just to meander aimlessly along the streets and canals watching the world go by.

The Tuisi (retreat & reflection) Garden 退思园, built by the retired official Ren Lansheng during 1885 and 1887, is the most spectacular in Tongli. Its name is derived from an aphorism expressed in a very famous biography called Zuo Zhuan written by Zuo Qiuming in the Eastern Zhou period (770 BC - 221 BC):'Be loyal to the emperor when in officialdom; be meditative upon the previous faults while away from officialdom.' The ingenious design for Tuisi Garden conforms to the local landforms and conditions and covers about 700 square meters. In the garden, pavilions, terraces, halls, rockeries, ponds and other elements of the garden are harmoniously integrated together.

Gengle Mansion 耕乐堂was built during the Ming Dynasty, though its exact date of construction is unknown. The enormous hall complex, including living quarters and a garden, was built by a Ming Dynasty official, Zhu Xiang, who styled himself Gengle and who declined a promotion as the result of having designed a famous bridge, Baodai Bridge, choosing instead to live the life of a recluse in Tongli, hence the name of the hall. Gengle Mansion comprises 52 houses distributed among 5 courtyards. One passes through three gates to reach the innermost of the 5 courtyards.

The garden naturally contains a pond, Lotus Pool, and a rockery made of grotesquely shaped (eroded into strange shapes) stones from the bottom of nearby Lake Tai. Bridges span corners and elongated stretches of the pool, in the style of the famous scholar gardens of Suzhou, with trees and buildings strategically placed so as to conceal the complete dimensions of the garden, a factor that gives the illusion of a much larger garden, as was the custom when constructing a scholar garden. Also in the garden stands an old pine tree that is over 400 years old. Some of the prominent halls of Gengle Mansion are: Mandarin Duck Hall, Huanxiu Hall, and Sweet-Scented Osmanthus Hall. Gengle Mansion has survived the rise and fall of several Ming and Qing Dynasty emperors. It has been classified as one of the 8 best attractions of Tongli.

Jiayin Mansion, built in 1922 during the early years of the Republic of China (1912-1949), is nevertheless built in the Ming Dynasty style, in keeping with the same style in which Gengle Mansion was built. Jiayin Mansion faces Chongben Mansion across a waterway. Jiayin Mansion was built as the residence of a local scholar by the name of Liu Yazi (1887-1958), a friend and colleague of Chen Qubing. Liu Yazi, also one of the three founding fathers of Nanshe ("South Society", the late Qing Dynasty – early Republic of China literary organization) wrote the preface to an influential article by Chen Qubing on the subject of the reform of Chinese theatre. The article was published in 1904 in the Chinese magazine, Ershi shiji dawutai ("The 20th-Century Grand Stage"), which was a short-lived media arm of Nanshe.

Jiayin Mansion is characterized by high, white outer walls and by inner walls clad with wood paneling that is ornamented with exquisite carvings. Above the main doorway is a section of roof with upturned eaves, reminiscent of the style of the Huizhou architecture of southern Anhui. A handsome but unimposing garden forms the center of the mansion complex.

Chongben Mansion, constructed by a wealthy Tongli merchant (Chong Ben) in 1912, has 4 courtyards and numerous buildings made of a combination of brick, stone and wood, with interior wood paneling on which are carved scenes from classic Chinese literature, including images of cranes and vases, both considered auspicious, the latter because the word for "vase" in Chinese is the same as that for the word "peace" (many Chinese words and numbers are considered lucky because their name is homonymic with another word that denotes a positive attribute such as luck, wealth, long life, etc.).

A special feature of Chongben Mansion is that each row of its buildings is situated at a slightly higher elevation than the preceding row of buildings (i.e., the rows are "stepped"), which was the owner's way of expressing the hope, if not conviction, that each generation of the Chong family would attain greater success than the previous.

Chuanxin Lane, archaic yet elegant, is worthy of special mention, its bluestone pathways providing a hint of the city's ancient cultural flavor. Centuries of footsteps and raindrops have polished the ancient streets and alleyways of Tongli, imparting a special patina, which, for the natives of the town, preserves the memory of the generations of Tongli inhabitants who went before.

Former Residence of Chen Qubing has received the highest tourist rating – 4A – by the Chinese authorities, and has received official state protection under the country's patrimony commission (note that Chen Qubing (1874-1933) was one of the three founding fathers of the so-called Nanshe ("South Society"), the largest literary society of the late Qing Dynasty – early Republic of China era, and all three South Society founders were also members of the revolutionary (and forbidden, therefore underground, during the Qing Dynasty) organization founded by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the Tongmenghui ("Chinese Revolutionary Alliance").


NOW for something completely different……. Tongli is the home of China's Sex Museum! 中华性文化 ;展览 The museum comprises a number of buildings on the tree-shaded campus of a former school. The over 1500 exhibits cover ca. 9000 years of Chinese sexual history in four main areas: 1. Prehistoric times 2. Women and marriage. 3. Sex in everyday life. 4. Unconventional sexual behavior. The exhibitions are divided into sections, each with its separate theme, such as Sex and Evolution, Sex in Literature and Art, and The Sexual Oppression of Women. The artifacts/ relics range from the explicit such as tomb paintings, devices for sexual stimulation, and figures with exaggerated sexual organs to the more implicit such as furniture designed to enhance the art of love-making. There is also the educational dimension, such as an exhibit that features porcelain figures which parents would discreetly place in the bottom of the dowry trunk with the aim of letting the bride discover how it was done, in case the groom was inexperienced or just too shy. In all, there are over 1200 such articles on display in the museum.

A number of exhibits are worth a mention, including statue of a grandson and his grandfather, sporting an elongated, phallic head with a turtle resting on the tip. The visual pun is that the tip of the penis (guitou) and the word for turtle (wugui) share the same character. Friezes of group sex rituals, involving multiple partners from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25- 220AD) provide a fascinating glimpse of a sexual culture starkly at odds from that of today. A number of instruments of torture for unfaithful and wanton women are on display. There's also the collection of yaxiangdi (literally, "bottom of the box"), figurines placed at the bottom of a trunk given to a woman on her wedding day which illustrate sexual positions to the uninitiated.

So all in all I have had a fascinating two days visiting the little Venice of the East and have come away feeling relaxed and refreshed despite the temperatures! Back to Nanjing tonight for a few days before I head off for my next adventure........until then...its bye from me. xxx