Suzhuou

I have started to write this looking out of the window from our hotel in Suzhou.

The noise of cars, horns blowing and people shouting is persistent. But what a fantastic city.

Suzhou is famous for its gardens and it’s silk. The town sits on a vast network of interlocking canals whose waters feed the renowned classical gardens. Last night we had a cruise along the canals - some beautiful houses sat among the restaurants all looking onto the canal.

This canal was built in the 13th century to connect Beijing to Suzhou. It is interesting that the two main rivers in China go from East to West - hence the need for a canal North to South.

Marco Polo, in the late thirteenth century, wrote about Suzhou - ' six thousand bridges, clever merchants, cunning men of all crafts, very wise men called Sages and great natural physicians.’

Again, among the streets at night, group dancing and T'ai Chi was abundant. We had a local guide Linda who was in her mid 20's and it is interesting that she stated that the young are doing yoga rather than T'ai Chi.

So far throughout the tour we have been able to mix the study of Integrated Health Care with cultural visits.

Some sightseeing

Monday we went up the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. This was completed in 1994 and is 1500 ft / 457m high as has become an icon of China. We went to the second viewing tower at 268m. Standing on the glass floored platform looking down on Shanghai was fantastic and created a lot of nervous energy amongst the delegates.

We followed this with a walking tour of Shanghai visiting the general market and the square where horse racing took place before it and gambling were banned.

The old racecourse was the centre of Shanghai social life in the early 20th century. In 1949 when the communist came to power this symbol of Western decadence was turned into a park and square that was used for political rallies. The grandstand became the Shanghai Art Museum.

Tuesday we visited Shanghai Museum this was established in 1952. The present building, completed in 1966, is shaped with a square base and a round top attached with arches like a bronze Ding.

All this indicates the ancient Chinese philosophy of the universe that the earth is square while the sky is round. In front of the building sat eight imposing white marble statues of guardian lions. Lions appear in front of many buildings as a sign of protection.

The Shanghai Museum has over one million exceptional treasures which demonstrate the wisdom and skills of Chinese ancestors.

After checking out of the hotel today - Wednesday - we visited one of the superb gardens of Suzhou - The Master of Nets Garden. The outstanding feature of this small but elegant garden is that it combines living quarters with the landscape garden. The centre is a pond surrounded by roofed walkways and pavilions. There are decorated trees with fantastic rockeries with flowers. There are scenes beyond scenes and gardens within the gardens.

Suzhou Kangli Hospital

On Wednesday afternoon we visited Suzhou Kangli Hospital. This is a privately run 60 bedded hospital offering a comprehensive service including orthopaedics, gynaecology, general surgery and medicine. Laparoscopic surgery is being offered.

There is also a Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It was opened one year ago and the building was a fish factory before. They have seen 15,000 outpatients and 500 in patients in the year.

Do have a look at their most impressive web site:   www.scgk120.com

We were shown around by the director Zhou Yunzhen and one of the four medical owners Dr Zhang Zhangll.

They appear to offer a very fast and efficient service and compete against the local state hospital. Salaries are very much on the bonus system. It appears each month there will be a bonus provided to the department manager to distribute amongst his or her staff. Sickness is not an excuse and if you are off more than 5 days then there is no bonus considered.

Hard labour

Contracts at the hospital are similar for all workers in China ie on short term contracts with one year the norm and three years the maximum contract one can receive.

The hospital requires continual professional development for all staff and expect one month a year – about 150 hours. This has to be done in the workers own time.

For the first year of working there is no paid holiday, the next one to nine years of working there is 5 days holiday a year and after that a maximum of 14 days.

Clinics do appear to be open at weekends and the evening to allow workers to visit them out of their working hours so they do not have to miss work.

80 – 90% of the care is using Western medicine and the rest TCM. We visited the TCM department and watched the Doctor of TCM perform back acupuncture. On the wards we met a gentleman who had a recent had operation.

The first private hospital was opened about 8 years ago and now in Suzhou 3-4% of the hospitals are privately owned.

A silk factory

We followed this by a trip to the silk factory. here we had a lecture on the life cycle of the silk worm and then a tour of the museum and factory. There was a display of the looms and weaving machines. There also was a room of the silkworms eating the mulberry leaves and spinning cocoons. The demonstration also included with a working factory that allowed us to follow the cocoon to the finished silk product. Finally we all visited the shop where some spent more than others.

Following the silk shop and after a meal we headed to the train station to await our overnight journey to Beijing.