A Day Off in Suzhou

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We’ve got one day off every 5 days of teaching, but it’s really not off at all, since the University has planned a trip for us to Suzhou along with our TAs and Monitors. So, there’s no getting away from students on our day off.

Suzhou is famous for its gardens. I visited the city during my first visit to China about 15 years ago. I remember at least one of the gardens we visited from that first time, the Humble Administrator’s Garden. What I remember most was that it wasn’t nearly as crowded that first visit as it was this time around. Maybe it’s the season, since my first visit was in November. But suspect it’s also because the growing prosperity here makes it possible for Chinese to travel more than ever.

There’s a typical structure to Chinese formal gardens, with scale being the major differentiator. The Humble Administrator’s Garden is the largest and most famous in Suzhou and one can imagine how much more beautiful it would be with fewer visitors and in the spring and fall.

We also visited Liu Lingering Garden. More of the same on a smaller scale.

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