Sunday in the sun
A couple of weeks ago we had unseasonably warm weather and we took the chance to visit a village in the outskirts of Suzhou. I had heard about it but I’d never been there. Well, or so I thought. It turned out this village is right next to the cemetery where C.’s paternal grandfather is buried! I had been there several times, but I didn’t know it was that village and anyway we never saw much of the surroundings.
This village is called Wangshan Village (旺山村) and it seems they’ve been trying to develop its tourist industry. And they’re being very successful! We went there on a Sunday and the place was packed. There were so many cars in the main (basically only) street that we parked the car in the cemetery, which was less than 5 minutes walking. The part of the village that we visited was surprisingly hip. The small restaurants in the black tiled houses sported slogans like “Wangshan recontre le Louvre”, which if I remember my French correctly means “Wangshan meets the Louvre”. I think this reference to the Louvre museum was due to some copies of classic sculptures that were dotted around the whole place. There was also a long line of cute food trucks, something that I had never seen in China before.
It was a very warm day (about 25 degrees) so we had lunch outside and then explored the surroundings.
Al fresco dining.
Just behind the small restaurant houses there was a tea field with hills at the back. The plum trees were in bloom and there were lots of families with tents spending the day.
In this area there was also a cat cafe that hired “rooms” with a cat in them. The rooms were transparent, like inflatable igloos! There was a long line of people waiting their turn to spend some time with the cats. We didn’t need to go there as we found someone who had brought his own kitty from home!
Cats also go for walks on sunny days.
As it was fit for such a warm and sunny day, we bought ice cream and blew bubbles.
Next to the cat cafe lived a flock of pigeons. They had very cute mini houses on trees and they were taken care of by an old man who feeds them corn and is very friendly towards visitors.
Family portrait with pigeon houses behind.
I loved our little trip and I’m looking forward to having good weather as it’s been raining for the last couple of weeks and we’ve had to limit our outings to malls and indoor playgrounds. It seems there are more places to explore in Wangshan, and many other interesting places around Suzhou!
Looks like a gorgeous day! Are the giant rabbits always there, or is this early Easter decor?
They looked like they’re always there! No Easter in China, hehe. (Now that I think about it, no Easter bunnies in Spain either, we only have the religious part of the festivity there).
What a delightful day, thank you for sharing so can travel vicariously!
Thanks for coming with us! Our “travels” are also short distance, haha.
Looks like a perfect day for a family outing. Little towns and villages are always fun to explore.
Yes! And, sometimes, we fixate on visiting faraway places and we ignore what we have right next to us. Or does that only happen to me? Haha!
that cat cafe and the pigeon houses look lovely..i wonder if anyone here in the u.s. is doing that ? i havent seen anything like it!
It looks like a business opportunity, haha. Animal cafes are very popular in Asia.
What a great outing! I enjoy day-trips like that.
I enjoy them too, but I rarely find the chance to go! I need to plan my weekends better.
Looks fun. I guess the next challenge is to get people to understand animal behaviour better – those cat cafes can be really stressful for the cats unfortunately
Sorry, I’m not an expert in cats myself either. For sure I won’t be visiting cat cafes, thanks to my cat allergy xD
Baby A looks like his Dad!
25C you lucky girl. Spring’s late here. It’s officially spring this Sunday but I think it’s going to take a while to warm up. This winter has to be the coldest and greyest winter yet here. Anyways, the Breakarule cafe made me laugh!
Ha, interesting! Chinese people all say he looks like me. But in that picture, his face shape does look like C.’s.
25C was just one day! But the winter has been quite warm here this year. No snow and we only had subzero temperatures a couple of nights. My chilblains didn’t get the memo though, and this year they are worse than ever… Especially my index finger looks like I have leprosy or something xD
Nooo to chilblains! Have you tried ginkgo biloba or horse chestnut. They help with blood circulation!
Of course they’ll say baby A looks like you! I don’t think I have to explain that one.
It’s beginning to warm up here. 1st day of spring was like winter in temps. 2 weeks later lifeguards are duty. I’m looking forward to when it’s warm enough for me to go in the water :)
How do the ginkgo and the chestnuts work? Do you have to eat them, or put them on the chilblains? Haha!
I’ve been applying some Chinese traditional medicine called “red flower oil” (go figure what it is…). Supposedly, if you rub it very vigorously until it feels very hot on the skin, you won’t get chilblains on that spot the following winter. However mine are all over my hand so we’ll see if it works or not…
You take them in tablet form! I take them as thanks to my Mother I have veiny legs 😭 Ginkgo I think world better in the winter. Red flower oil: chilli oil? Turmeric?! I looked it up! It sounds nasty! But I can’t have cloves as they aggravate any eczema!
It looks like it was a lovely getaway. I imagine many folks are getting used to the idea of traveling locally and embracing just being able to get out and see someplace new. xo
For weekends, they are doing just that! But for longer holidays, people are still traveling around China.
Yes, same here. We’ve got some deep discounts going on too.
It looked like such a gorgeous day, sun out and blue skies. Ice-cream sounded like a nice treat. Maybe since it will be summer for you soon you will get more days like these. Those pigeon houses look so cute. We have stray pigeons here in Melbourne (in the urban areas) but they are mostly seen as annoying and unhygienic.
Yes, in Europe pigeons are considered like flying rats too haha. But these one were like trained, and it’s in the countryside, so they’re ok I guess :D
Looks like a very nice place for outings. The white statue at the edge of the field is a bit strange though.
I think it’s part of the supposed Louvre connection… the statues must be copies of the ones in that museum!