2008-10-11

Posted at 07:47 UT by Tamara

SEGMENT 331
Tongli, China
Ancient Water and Garden City of China
Part 14 in the 16 part series on China

Segment 331
features the beautiful water and garden town of Tongli.

It is a small and ancient town very near Suzhou, which is the "Venice of the East", signified a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997,a 2,500 year old city famous world-wide for its traditional gardens, canals, and silk worm production mills. We'll be filming a few of these Garden houses.

With the construction of the Great Canal, another of those huge public work projects the poorest people of China got roped into to build by imperial emperors to more easily transport the wealth of the region to Beijing, a distance of 600 miles.

This large canal project did result in increased prosperity and prestige for the area, and as merchants and artisans plied their trade, came the construction of many Classical Chinese "Garden" houses, home enclaved that sometimes housed families and extended families of 100 people surrounding a central water garden pools filled with goldfish, non-edible carp, kept strictly for their good looks and now very hungry for the tourists to buy food for them to eat. They all come swarming over when food is being dropped into the pools.

For me, it seems a waste to have a pool and not a fish to eat in it, as I would prefer lake bass, trout, and dinner stock in my self-reliant pool, but this was the household of a wealthy family who most likely had enough money to purchase fish, instead of having them nearby to catch.

The wealthy like to demonstrate their wealth
Perhaps someday, the wealthy will like to demonstrate full utilization and non-wastage of resources instead.

Located on the bank of Taihu Lake, Tongli is an ancient and scenic water town with natural canals and many quaint and beautiful stone bridges. It is like a small Venice where the locals and tourists alike boat about in wooden gondolas.

We will be visiting a traditional Chinese Garden house of Tuisi (Pondering Over After Retirement ), which has attracted many film makers as a location.

We are delighted by the performance of an ancient song by two beautiful young Chinese women, on ancient instruments, as a musical delight for the segment.

Suzhou is a city famed for it's silk production and spinning mill, and a visit is planned, but no footage is allowed shot on the inside where silk worms feed on the mulberry tree leaves, and where the cocoons are then unthreaded, and combined with other silken threads to produce a combined silk thread strong enough for weaving.

We may be featuring the famous silk factory at a later date showing the various fabrics, fashions, and other goods made from this marvelous silkworm in our sister series, the Arts of Fashion and Beauty. Stay tuned for another day.

We will be overnighting at the Nanlin Hotel in Suzhou, which can be found on-line at www.nalin.cn

Airing Schedule for
SEGMENT 331
Part 14 in the 16 part series on China

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.

Friday, January 30th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.

Labels: CHINA - 16 Part Mini-Series - GREAT GETAWAYS of the WORLD