3 - Suzhou

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Suzhou; August 13^th, 2008

So we arrived at Suzhou Train Station from Shanghai around 3pm, trekked about half a kilometre into town (dodging aggressive touts hawking hotels and minibuses along the way), and grabbed a cab. Our hostel, Suzhou International Youth Hostel, was a cozy little place on the other side of town. After settling in to our dorm rooms we set out onto town to run a few errands: finding a bank, refilling my cell phone, and most importantly, finding some good food. The former two errands took only around an hour or two to complete, leading us to settle for a nearby Korean restaurant. Thought the food was rather bland, we still appreciated the chance to sit down and catch up on the Olympics (no medals for Canada yet though)! With our first day in Suzhou coming to a close, short yet productive, we hurried back home on foot only stopping to grab dessert at an awesome crepe place along the way: I choose banana chocolate cheesecake while Joanna went with a fruit combination.

When Marco Polo visited the city, he proclaimed it to be the Venice of the East and the most beautiful town in China.

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Suzhou; August 14^th, 2008

After good nights sleep in our separate dorm rooms (the hostel was not co-ed) on what were essentially wood boards with sheets, we rented a couple bikes from the front desk and pedalled away. First on our to-do list was train tickets for the next day and we were lucky enough to have a ticket agency right next door to the hostel; secondly, we needed breakfast, which was found shortly after wandering a few blocks. We then wheeled away looking for a scenic place to enjoy breakfast, which was found on the campus of a Suzhou University, alongside a beautiful ancient canal. Turns out, these canals (many over 400 years old) criss-cross all over Suzhou; in fact, when Marco Polo visited the city, he proclaimed it to be the Venice of the East and the most beautiful town in China. Though only a small amount of that former beauty appeared to remain upon our visit, we still found ourselves happily lost on our bikes, wandering along Suzhou’s tree-lined streets and canal-side alleys. As the sun got higher in the sky, so did the mercury, so we took refuge in a local park to escape the heat along with the locals. We took advantage of the shade by planning out next destination for the day; Suzhou, spoiled us for interesting destinations, so we settled for a nearby garden, the Blue Wave Pavilion that was originally built in the 11^th century as a prince’s residence. The garden itself is a UNESCO World Heritage site (one of many within the city) and is also the oldest in the city. Our tour guide, though he only spoke mandarin (many thanks to Joanna for translating), told us the many stories behind each room and its contents. There are over 100 windows in the garden, each with unique design and pattern. We lingered in the garden for an hour or two, chatted with an elderly woman who advised us to avoid seeing more garden or pagodas, as she simply said “you seen one, you seen them all”. We headed back out into the afternoon sun, picking up some fresh produce from a local farmer (nothing better than fresh picked juicy pears on a summer day, she even peeled it for us too) before hopping back onto our bikes, and set out to find lunch. Riding into the downtown area, we saw that a good portion of Suzhou (sadly) had been developed into a bustling mid-sized city core; however, within this core was Suzhou’s impressive bulk of restaurants (many of which didn’t open until 5pm unfortunately), some of which are over 300 years old. Unable to find any of these famous restaurants open for lunch, we settled for some Mickey D’s, which I’ve found to be a great remedy for home sickness. Wandered around the area on foot, we found ourselves checking out the downtown shops, enjoying an awesome foot massage, and attracting the usual suspects hawking fake designer bags and watches. With a little rain starting to fall, we checked the time and discovered that it was already time for dinner, leading us to head in the direction of Songhe Lou. Songhe Lou, a 200 year old restaurant favoured by a Qing emperor, had interestingly brusque service, which contrasted the high quality of the food we were served. After enjoying our meal, we headed back to the hostel in the pouring rain.

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Suzhou; August 15^th, 2008

After waking up a little late, with our bones a still a little soaked, we checked out and headed out carrying all our possessions on our backs. Our first stop of the day: Suzhou Silk Museum, a fascinating exhibition on China’s 4000 year history in the art of silk making. The museum even has a garden growing several different species of mulberry trees, which feeds all the silk worms in an adjacent room. Several hundreds of white and disgusting looking (Joanna hates worms) silk worms spend weeks laying on a bed of mulberry leaves eating and eventually die in their own cocoons, which are then used to make long strands of silk. Little to our surprise, there were several souvenir shops waiting for us at the end of the museum, well stocked with very expensive price tags! Dodging the overpriced silk bedding and ties, we walked towards a towering nearby pagoda on a whim. Joanna climbed the pagoda while I rested at the bottom (my backpack was a little more than I could handle when climbing narrow stairs) and the pictures she brought back down contained sweeping views of Suzhou from above. With both us needing a break from the tourist bustle of the Pagoda, we ducked into a nearby restaurant and ordered some familiar Chinese fare, however, I felt like a glass of milk; unfortunately, my glass of “milk” (it was actually liquid yogurt) ended up costing 20¥! After a drawn out argument over the bill, we finally gave up and headed out, making sure to bring my 20 kuai milk (the box must be worth something). Hopping in a cab, we asked the driver if there were any “night markets” (an area in which street stalls selling food or other goods are set up at night) in the area; he nodded and hit the gas. Unfortunately, something may have been lost in translation, as he dropped us off at the mall that we were at the day before! It would appear that our driver assumed we simply wanted to go to a shopping venue that was open at night, rather than our desired night market. Luckily enough, our desire for a more local experience was fulfilled by a nearby bike cabbie, who offered to take us for a ride through the “old town.” The “old town” was is an area in Suzhou where the city’s classical canal town architecture is still well preserved. The area was extremely photogenic and our driver was nice enough to let us get out and take as many pictures as we wanted. After snapping a few night shots, we thanked our driver for showing us the Suzhou we’d came to see and started to wander in the direction of the train station. We stopped of at a foot massage place on the way, to take shelter from the rain and to give our well worked feet some attention. After a nice rest and some well needed relaxation, we hopped on a city bus (every city bus route begins and ends at the train station, saving us cab fare) and caught our night train to Huangshan.