tiger hill

a bit over a week ago now i got to go to suzhou again and we went to tiger hill this time. tiger hill is a beautiful park in the spring and we got to be there right before the off season ended so we got a discount on our entrance fees. =)

there were some beautiful bamboo forests like this one, and different flowers blooming everywhere.

and this is the pagoda on tiger hill. it's so old that it's leaning and no one is allowed to go inside. it was built in 960 AD. it's the tallest pagoda i've seen so far too.

i'm still curious about pagodas and don't entirely understand why they are built although a couple different people have tried to explain it to me. i like the old ones better than the new ones though. they're more interesting.

i found this guy hanging out and painting the pagoda while people hang out watching him.

i also found characters carved on trees and bamboo in various places throughout the park. i've never seen that anywhere else. i don't know what it says.

me with some pretty flowers. =)

B is here at this crossing being the trolls and the boys are the three billy goats. =)
B also wrote chinese poetry for us while we sat in one of those little pavilion things with the traditional roofs...they have a very regular sounding name that i can't think of. but i understood his poetry, it was great. something like
"beautiful mountain
beautiful trees
beautiful flowers
this place i like"
but in chinese. =)

we also saw hundreds of bonsai trees in this garden.

i've never seen so many before, and they were all different.

there were also bonsai rocks, which i've never heard of before. i thought bonsai just meant trees. but i wasn't going to disagree because somehow these rocks seemed like bonsai too.

there were lots of beautiful places to walk.

but the canal on the edge of the park runs right up to some people's homes. that would be an interesting place to live.

and last but not least, at the entrance to a bamboo forest was the sign to beat all other signs that i have seen so far in china.
"Your health rests with Your Civilized Behavior"