Suzhou

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Today we got out of Shanghai on the fast train (330km/hr) and in 25 minutes we were in Suzhou. Apparently a very important place historically and very well known for it's beautiful gardens and canals. It certainly had both but the amount of construction and smog, like most places in China was a real pity. We bought a map off some cool out duck and took a taxi to some temples and gardens. There we found the coolest building. It was an octagonal pagoda about six storeys high with the biggest bell I have ever seen. It was probably 8 metres tall and covered in Chinese text and you rang it by swinging a battering ram against it - very cool.

We then wandered around to an island with some cool bridges, boat and buildings and watched the endless barges ferrying goods up and down the canals - very cool. Next we headed to the large pagoda on the hill called tiger pagoda and gardens. This was a really cool place overlooking the smoggy city. It was an important place for imperial scholars to go to and contemplate and even had an emperor stay there once ! The Pagoda was over 1000 yrs old and is a classic example of song dynasty architecture - very nice. Also there were heaps of little cool terraces, bridges, buildings and a forest of Bonsai (at least 500) that were really incredible.

after not being able to find dinner and meeting some Canadians we high speed back to Shanghai for some Pizza !

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