MuDu

To the far West of Suzhou, on the flat lands at the foot of the hills surrounding Tai Hu Lake, is the old town of MuDu.   For most of the last 2000 years, Mudu has been an independent village, separated from Suzhou City by miles of rural countryside.   In the last 15 years or so, Mudu has been gradually absorbed by it's larger neighbor.  Suzhou expanded outward, and the boundaries of the Suzhou New District crept relentlessly Westward toward Mudu.  Mudu then became a bit of a posh suburb for Suzhou businessmen, and it expanded Eastward toward its larger neighbor.  Today, the two cities are fused.  You can't tell where one stops and the other starts.  (Or at least I can't .  I can't read the signs.)

 Mudu prides itself on having history and architecture that rival Suzhou.  In the heart of Mudu, in the historic district, are a series of gardens and mansions and temples and such.  These are built along the main canal which, I would guess, served as the main artery of Mudu in the old days.  Today, Mudu is a tourist attraction in its own right.  But it is off the beaten path of the main tour groups which focus on the Humble Administrators Garden and Tiger Hill.  When I visited, I saw a lot of people but not one other Westerner.  My impression is that Mudu is pretty similar to a State Park in the U.S.  It gets a lot of family visitors from the surrounding region on day or week-end trips.  But it is not a Yellowstone that attracts people at the national and international level.

 Mudu does seem to be a great place for a date.  It has a gimmick with great appeal to young couples.  There are ton of small shops that "rent" out historic costumes - outfits to make you look like a soldier or a scholar or a prince or a princess.  The gimmick is that you can rent the costumes and then go off and search for a picture-perfect location to make your own photographs. 

The shops don't provide the photographers...only the costumes.  That is the brilliant part of the gimmick.  All over Mudu you see young couples - one dressed up in a costume and the other fawning all over them taking hundreds of photos from every angle.  They coo and giggle and lavish attention on each other....for hours.  What is a date, if not an opportunity to coo and giggle and lavish attention.

 The young lady in the photo below is an example.  She is not just posing for a photograph, she is participating in courtship China-style.

The young lad in the topmost photograph is also an example of the costume-photo gimmick at work.  The gimmick, you see, works not only on young couples.  Parents also love to lavish attention on their young children.  And young children love to dress up in costume and be the center of attention.

A tourist attraction would be incomplete without souvenir peddlers and street food.  Mudu has it's share of both.  Oddly enough, the main street of Mudu is named ShanTang Street, the same name as a similar tourist street in Suzhou.  In both Shantang Streets, the pedestrian pathways are flanked with shops selling knick-knacks and food of all kind.  In Mudu, Shantang Street gets narrower with each passing block until it becomes so narrow that two people can barely pass at the same time.  (Of course, the locals still try to ride their e-bikes through this mess.)

 The photo above shows one of the more popular offerings in the food stands on Shantang Street.  Deep fried river crab.  On a stick.  It's a Chinese Crab Popsicle.   It's all fried to a crunchy goodness.  You can bite off a mouthful and chew and swallow - shell and bones and all.

 Within Mudu are several classical Chinese gardens.  Water - Stone - Greenery.  The same formula you've seen before in the other gardens of Suzhou.  But the gardens of Mudu are spacious feel a bit less cramped than the gardens in Suzhou City.  One of them had room to include a traditional Kunqu opera stage.  The photo below shows the stage, complete with actors in the process of a demonstration performance.

 I'm out of gas....and can't put any words around the remaining photos.  They are just different glimpses of Mudu.  In Mudu, every time you turn your head it seems you are looking at a different picture postcard.