Suzhou

Sept 9th - Sept 12th (Day 189 - Day 191)

The next stop on our China adventure was Suzhou, a city an hour away from Shanghai famed for its numerous beautiful canals and stunning gardens. In the past the city has been described as the Venice of China so we were looking forward to discover what the place had to offer.

After another super fast train journey and a short taxi ride we arrived at our hotel in the modern part of the city. There were no signs of any canals yet and city looked pretty much like every other Chinese city we had been to.

The following day we set out on exploring the city properly. We headed all the way down the high street to the old part of the town. As soon as you enter the atmosphere changes and it feels like you step back in time a little. The old part of the city is made up of cobbled streets along side canals. All they way along the cobbled streets you have nice bars, restuarants and arty looking shops. It is all very touristy, but very pretty all the same.

The canals themselves are no longer functioning but tourists are able to pay to be rowed up and down by someone in traditional dress. Our favourite was one woman who rowed passengers up and down the canal whilst singing Chinese opera….a nice touch.

During the afternoon we decided to venture further along the canals away from the main tourist area. Personally I found this much more rewarding and interesting, taking in the sights and sounds of the city at a more relaxed pace. Enjoying everyday sights, such as people drying their underpants on the railings along side the canal.

That evening we went to some of the local shops and the supermarket to stock up on Pepsi. During the evening it became clear that a lot of the local kids were staring at me….This was odd as we had been in China for 3 weeks and hadn´t noticed it much before. At one point a little girl was staring at me for so long that I went over and said hello….at which point she turned into the most excited kid I have ever seen and started jumping up and down, shouted hello back and excitedly went to tell her mum. It was like she had just met David Beckham or something! It was all rather odd but on the other hand did make me feel like a local celebrity…which is always nice.

The following day we decided to visited one of the gardens the city is also famed for. We wandered up to the garden of the humble administrator and bought a ticket to join the crowds entering the garden.

The garden itself was nice, with large lily filled ponds, pretty flower bed and pleasant walkways. Although this was all rather diminished by hundreds of people visiting the garden. On the whole Tina and I found the garden a little disappointing, we had been expecting something spectacular and it didn´t really hit the mark for us. This is possibly because we had been lucky enough to see some of the most exquisite gardens in Japan only a few weeks previously.

Suzhou had been a pleasant place to spend a few days relaxing, especially as our next stop was going to be a very busy week in Beijing.

xxx