The day starts with Star Wars

On the way to breakfast, we already had an interesting experience. In the 8th floor, a robot got into the elevator. He looked a bit like R2D2 from the movie Star Wars and spoke a lot in Chinese. In the ground floor, he then drove out of the elevator on his own, still talking a lot in Chinese, and looked for his charging station. We were so perplexed that we didn't take a photo, but we will surely see him again in the next few days.

The first stop after breakfast was the silk museum. While Ötzi was still marching over the Alps wrapped in furs, the Chinese had already invented silk 5,000 years ago. In the museum, all production steps were well explained, including live silk worms.

A variety of exhibits showed what can be done with silk. In addition, an old weaving loom was presented, showing how silk was woven. Two people are needed for this. One weaves while the other is responsible for the pattern.

After the silk museum, we went to 'Tiger Hill'. The first king of Suzhou is said to be buried there and there are many legends about it. When the king was buried, a tiger is said to have appeared on the hill the next day. Furthermore, the hill itself is said to be shaped like a tiger. The king himself was allegedly a great guy, with one sword blow he split a big rock, which can still be visited today.

About 2,000 years ago, a wandering preacher from India passed by. On Tiger Hill, he preached Buddhism to the people. He was quite successful, because the people built a temple with a pagoda on the hill. Unfortunately, it was like the leaning tower of Pisa. Already during the construction, one side sank and they tried to balance the whole thing on the further floors, which of course failed. So Suzhou has its own leaning tower.

There is a beautiful garden on Tiger Hill with a large bonsai exhibition and many other attractions (e.g. a collection of strange stones).

In the evening, we went to Shantang Street, which is full of Chinese tourists from the rural areas and where a lot of kitsch is sold. On a wall, you can write down your wishes and hang the note on the wall. Allegedly, the wish will then come true.