Me, Ildi, and our Chinese Adventure - Part 2, Suzhou!

The Lingering Garden...and crowds in the background :-(
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We only stayed in Suzhou for two days and one night, but we had a great time while we were there!

First of all, Suzhou stands in stark contrast to most other cities that I've seen in China (especially Beijing). Old canals run through the city, and are lined with carved marble/stone barriers. Suzhou's urban planners deserve credit too, for most major roads have not just concrete dividers - but dividers complete with trees and greenery. It is a beautiful city, and has a great garden-city atmosphere. However, I would have enjoyed it alot more if it weren't so crowded :-( Since it is one of the premier tourist destinations in China, it is also PACKED (especially its gardens). And we didn't think about this before setting out to Suzhou, but Chinese New Year is peak tourist season since most people get alot of time off from work...It was alot more crowded than usual just because of that.

It was none-the-less incredible...

Me and Ildi on the rampart leading up to the Panmen Gate fortress.
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The first day we were there, Ildi and I set out to find some good, cheap clothing. Neither of us can be considered fat, or overweight. However, whenever we find pants we like, 1) the salesmen tell us they don't have our size without even looking 2) they make an obvious glance at our waists and then tell us they don't have our size or, 3) ask us if we'd like to try on mens' pants. ...:-( Both of us have stopped trying. Luckily for Ildi (she only packed two pairs of pants, planning on buying a completely new set of clothing in China), we did find one store with stretchy jeans in our size. However, ALL of the jeans there are high-waisted and go up to our belly buttons. It seems that low-rise jeans have yet to reach China. However, given that it took several days to find pants that fit, that didn't matter much. We each got a pair, and at 175yuan (~US$20) it was a pretty good deal.

Ildi and I infront of the Panmen Gate fortress tower.
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The next day, we went on a tour of Suzhou's attractions. It was only 185yuan, started at 8am, and ran until about 5pm. On the tour we visited the Lion Forest Garden, The Lingering Garden, Han Shan Temple, The Three Scenes of Panmen Gate (a fortress, old buddhist pagoda, and bridge), a silk factory, and took a boat down the Great Canal - hand-dug hundreds of years ago between Hangzhou and Beijing (wow!)

Some History:

[The Lion Forest Garden] This garden is unique because it houses the oldest man-mad stone and rock formation in Suzhou (14th century I believe...). You can walk amongst the rocks, along the water, through caverns and on to precipice-like ledges. It is called the "lion forest" garden because you can supposedly see dancing lions in the jagged rock formations.

Another picture of Ildi and I, at the Lingering Garden...again :-P
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[The Lingering Garden] This garden was originally built during the Ming Dynasty (over 400 years ago), is one of China's four famous classical gardens, and is on UNESCO's list of cultural heritage sites. It was stunningly beautiful, and flawlessly done. Enough said.

[Han Shan Temple] This temple has its history in the Tang Dynasty. I didn't find it unique, but I thought the various stories and legends attached to the temple really interesting.

[The Three Scenes of Panmen Gate] This site is on the Great Canal. The gate itself has a history of 2,000-3,000 years. The Auspicious Light Pagoda was built during the Three Kingdoms period, and is the second-oldest pagoda in the Suzhou area. The bridge is the longest one-arch bridge in the Suzhou. The fortress' buildings and gates have been rebuilt and restored many times, but has never changed locations. Throughout China's history, it has been a key defensive point. Being there in person, it is such an imposing structure. Its just so incredible that something so old can still stand so solid.

It was a fun, but exhausting day. Again, the gardens were so crowded that we could barely move through some parts of it. I enjoy gardens because natural settings like that are incredibly calming. However, when trying to push your way past crowds of people, and trying to avoid being shoved out of the way yourself, it is hard to fully enjoy Suzhou's gardens. It was none-the-less incredible. The gardens we saw were so well laid out, full of beautiful rocks (sometime transported there from across the country), and their halls full of beautiful Chinese antiques.

I am definitely going to try to get back, for one day isn't nearly enough time to enjoy all of those sights, especially the gardens.