Suzhou - City of Gardens

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Suzhou is located only a one hour train ride out of Shanghai. We woke bright and early and headed over to the train station and joined in the scrum trying to buy tickets at the ticket office just outside. We expecting a regular timetable but found there was a huge gap where no trains ran for a couple of hours so we had time to catch up on breakfast and read our books while we waited.

We’re still quite a novelty to the Chinese but we’re starting to get used to the staring, pointing and laughing, maybe it’s the hair. They say there is a stupid looking phase when you’re trying to grow it out!

Once in Suzhou we found our hotel, and headed out into the town to buy tickets for our train ride back out the next day. The hardcore walkers that we are, we declined all offers from pedicab drivers and even bought a couple of umbrellas to shield ourselves from the rain that was just starting! We eventually found the ticket office but all we could buy was standing tickets… It’s an 8 hour overnight train journey to our next destination from here. I’m actually writing this blog on the train now, sitting on my backpack in the aisle and it’s as much fun as it sounds!!! That’ll teach us to leave it so last minute booking train tickets for a Saturday night!!!

Suzhou is famous for its silk and classical Chinese gardens, which are looked upon as a ‘fusion of nature, poetry and painting designed to ease, move or assist the mind’. All the gardens close quite early so we only had time to visit one today ‘The Garden of the Master of Nets’. Although the garden was beautifully laid out, it was very small and all centred around a big pond, it was also raining quite heavily so we had to stay sheltered under the covered walkways. It was very peaceful though and we had some moments to sit alone and gather our thoughts.

The next day we went out of our hotel to a small alley behind as there seemed to be a lot of restaurants there. We managed to find one with some English on the menu so had a look. I ordered one of the very few things on the menu which didn’t seem to mention pig’s stomach and/or ducks blood, but guess what I got… all wrapped up in a soup of chilli sauce. The pig’s stomach was actually quite tasty, the ducks blood looked a bit like liver but was tasteless and had a texture like crème caramel. The soup they were in was hotter than the fires of hell but I managed to gobble most of it down before I lost all feeling in my face! Faye was quite lucky and managed to order something which resembled meat, with peanuts and chillies. She claimed it was spicy but by the time I tried it I’d lost all sense of taste.

We then headed off into the outskirts of town to find the ‘Garden for Lingering in’. This is one of the largest in Suzhou and the best we went to all day. The weather had got a lot nicer so there was no need to stay confined to the walkways giving Faye and I the opportunity to wander around and lose ourselves in the beauty of it all. The key elements in these gardens are rocks and water, both of which are very plentiful. The water is filled with Koi and goldfish (and the odd turtle), making a very serene atmosphere. Luckily we managed to visit this one before the tour groups arrived so it was very quiet, which added to the magic.

From there we managed to flag down a pedicab to take us to the silk museum, which described the silk industry in Suzhou and had loads of examples of ancient silk (up to 1500 years old). It also had a section on how silk is made and the opportunity to see how the silk worms are raised and the silk collected!

Just across the road from the silk museum is the North Temple Pagoda, the tallest pagoda south of the Yangzi. It has nine stories and we were able to get some fine views of the city from the top.

A short walk down the road from the pagoda is the ‘Humble Administrators Garden’, possibly the largest garden in Suzhou and supposedly the best. This garden was enormous compared to the others we’ve been to, but made great use of the space with winding creeks, large pools, islands and many small pavilions to lounge around in soaking up the atmosphere. This garden was extremely popular (deservedly so), and although this garden was better designed and presented than the others we’ve visited the Garden for Lingering in was my favourite as it was easier to catch a moment alone with Faye and enjoy the calmness of it all!

We had a few hours to kill before our train left in the evening so we headed into town in a pedicab to grab a bite to eat. While we were in town, Faye decided that she wanted to get her hair cut as we saw a salon earlier with an English name underneath its Chinese one. That was where the English ran out. No one in the salon spoke any English and our phrasebook had no ‘In the Salon’ section so we had to try and make them understand what we wanted with hand gestures. Eventually all the employees of the salon made an appearance to see what all of the fuss was about and together they worked out what our poor attempt at silent clues meant and sat Faye down! While Faye’s hair was being shampooed I managed to find a magazine and we found a style that we liked, although the hairdresser was a little reluctant to cut so much off Faye’s fringe (about 10”) that she called a supervisor to do the chopping in case she messed up. Faye didn’t really care what they did, she was just enjoying the experience. In the end she ended up with a shampoo, beautiful new hairstyle and an in-chair massage all for £5, what a bargain!!!!! It’s just a shame we’re not going out for the evening to show it off, we’re spending it sitting on our packs in the aisle of a packed train!

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Photos

The Lingering Garden
Music to sooth and calm...

The Lingering Garden - 2
What's through the round window?

Faye
For God's sake woman, you're in my shot!

Comments

[Jenelope]

Mmm pig's stomach!
Dam I wish i could get some of that pigs stomach over here!! Have u tried chicken's feet yet?? Apparently also a delicacy! Mike, so far it sounds incredible - enough to make me mad with jealousy! XX jenel