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Published: January 21st 2009
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Suzhou
The trip to Suzhou on the train Decided I needed some fresh air and country living so took myself off to Suzhou for a couple of nights and days.
Suzhou is a small city of 5 million total but only 2 million within the city proper, 100 kilometres west of Shanghai. Compared to Shanghai it is like a country town, single level housing in some area, dogs and cats everywhere, old people out walking, kids playing and not a hint of smog anywhere.
You get there by train, 45 minutes total trip, going up to 200 kms an hour if it is a D class train in luxury and comfort. Suzhou train station is the like all the Chinese train stations with many waiting rooms, a huge walk to the outside exit and then quite an orderly process to grab one of the many cabs or pedicabs available.
Suzhou as a tourist destination offers many different types of experiences. It is most noted for its gardens, canals, silk and embroidery. Its history goes back to 4000BC, it was flourishing as a center for artisans, scholars and artists over 1000 years ago, and has withstood the various regimes and dynasties largely intact.
So to start
Suzhou
What you see, garbage piles, destroyed homes and new ones being built, gardens and people working in the fields with the gardens.
Chinese gardens have as features; rocks, well-laid paths of varying textures, varied heights of structures, pagodas, and carefully chosen strategic plants. Suzhou has many famous gardens within easy walking distance, most costing 15-30Yuan to visit and explore. Some are less than 1 hectare and others quite vast with quite a few being first set out in the 12th century.
I visited the East Gardens and Zoo, which is more of a botanical garden in nature, rambling and varied, less formalized, quite lovely. It was huge, had a lake, boats for hire, childrens amusement park, long walks along canals and lakes and over hill and dale almost.
The zoo was immaculate and clean, but hardly inspiring for the animals. The glass walled cages contained a single animal a lot of the time, with a small plant, a small section of grass and mostly concrete or paths. With hardly any stimulation most animals paced relentlessly or one bear was totally amused by a drinking straw that someone must have thrown him. Many people were throwing various types of food into the cages; the panda had drawings of bamboo in his cage not a real stick of it to
Suzhou
building roads and bridges and railways, a constant be seen. It was well laid out, had an extensive collection and well patronized just depressing compared to places like Taronga Park in Australia or San Diego Zoo in USA.
There is also one of the best smaller museums I have ever visited anywhere and I do like to visit museums as people who know me well can attest to. It is free, just built and laid out like a traditional home with internal gardens in various areas. The old museum is still next door, which is Prince Zhong’s house fully, restored with various rooms, halls, cold and draughty and how did people live without heating at all beats me.
The new museum is warm, well laid out with a useful cloakroom, all aspects captioned in English with a full history of each dynasty well explained and exhibits so well displayed and captioned. The oldest exhibits dated from 4000BC with so much history in China so well documented and retained. The museum highlights the cultural past of the city with learning and education one of the areas that was considered to be extremely important.
Silk and silk embroidery is big in China and maybe biggest in Suzhou
Suzhou
Courtyard garden in Joya YHA of all. Factories, shops and outlets are everywhere, with a museum and shops and shops and shops.
And finally canals. There is a criss cross of these throughout in various sizes, well established for a couple of thousand years and still used today in various ways, for transport, tourism and day to day life in the accommodation beside the canal.
PingJiang Lu is a wonderful restored walkway alongside one of the canals which historic little bridges, fancy coffee shops, art galleries and craft shops, and real life alongside it all.
I stayed in a youth hostel in an alleyway off Pingjiang Lu, which is a historic home which has been in the Pang family for four generations. A lovely place, cold at this time of the year but it would be great in the summer, quiet and extremely quaint.
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