Suzhou

---

I arrived around 20:30 in Suzhou from Shanghai by train. Therefore, I took a taxi to my hostel. For once it was clear that the Chinese have some idea about efficiency! Everyone had to stand in one line and people who tried to get in front of the line were sent away by two police men. Wonderful! The night of my arrival I didn’t do anything anymore, except for a drink in the hostel’s bar.

The next morning, I walked around in the neighbourhood of the hostel. I expected Suzhou to be a big city and it is, but the hostel is located in the historic area of Suzhou. This means that the city centre is very close by, but that the area feels like a small village. I walked around and surprised myself of the different situation I had expected, although I don’t know what that would have been.
After having checked out of the hostel and having left my big bag pack there, I spend some time in the shopping city centre. This was not of much interest, so I got on the bus to the long distance bus station. Because the ride took very long, I asked around and it turned out that I had already passed the bus station... Well, at least I have seen another part of Suzhou.

(-> see for the hours in between the next blog about Tongli)

A day later around noon, I arrived again at the same bus station in Suzhou. (in the mean time I’ve been to Tongli, but see my other blog for those pictures.) Now I knew how to get back to the hostel. I checked in again and changed some stuff in my small bag pack. Suzhou is known for their gardens, so I walked to the largest and most famous park of Suzhou, The Humble Administrator’s Garden. After having seen some gardens in Tongli, I wasn’t as impressed by this one. Certainly due to the high entrance price there were only tourists and no locals. While normally the locals create the nice atmosphere. What I did like about the garden was the bonsai collection and the museum about the philosophy behind the lay-out of the gardens. There were some nice pictures (although most of them had changed colours already).

After the garden, I decided to leave the gardens for what they are and went to the Suzhou Silk Museum. Especially the living silk worms were nice to see and the story was interesting. On my way back to the hostel, I stopped to get a foot massage. For already three days my feet really hurt already after one hour of walking! The foot massage felt good, although I didn’t feel the relief immediately. Too bad. Because of the 2 for 1 cocktail offer, I felt sleepy afterwards and decided (again) to go to sleep.

---

Photos

Suzhou historic area II
Many couples taking their wedding pictures

The Humble Administrator's Garden II
Bonzai park