Suzhou
We were dropped off at the Huangshan station for the overnight train
to Suzhou (~12 hours.) We shared the compartment with a young Chinese
couple. They got off at Wuxi, about an hour drive from Suzhou. One
thing that is nice about the soft sleepers is that the train
attendants come and let you know a few stops ahead that you will be
exiting and then will make sure that you get off the train. This was
crucial since we had no idea where we were during the ride. I managed
to ask the train attendant about one of the stops we made, but I had
no geographical idea of where we were and how far we had to go (and
neither is my Mandarin good enough to ask and then understand the
reply.)
Emma was our tour guide in Suzhou. She and the driver were waiting for
us and took us to the Lidu Hotel. Along the way she explained that
Suzhou is where people want to live because of it's slow pace of life.
She said people walk slow and talk slow there – though I'm not sure I
agree! However, I wouldn't mind living there. Suzhou is much more of
a city than what we had experienced in the Anhui province but
definitely not as crowded and crazy as Shanghai. Suzhou has hundreds
of gardens due to its high population of rich people in the olden
days. Silk was the main industry of the town.
After taking a quick shower at the hotel, we caught a taxi (10Y base
fare) to Tiger Hill Garden outside the city moat. Emma had told us
there was a festival there, though she either didn't know or couldn't
translate to English the meaning of the festival (from what she told
us, some poet wrote about the festival and now it is a tradition.)
There were live performances (music, dance, acrobatics, etc) and tons
of "small snacks" (as Lily, our tour guide at one of the gardens,
called it) or xiaochi. We enjoyed walking around in the lively
atmosphere. There were also a few interesting vendors there including
a guy that made lollipops made out of elegantly draped spun sugar. He
melted caramel and drizzled thin lines onto a marble slab, making very
intricate designs.
Then we took a bicycle pulled rickshaw (3Y) to what I think was
Lingering Garden (at least that's what I wrote on the paper we showed
the rickshaw guy.) We ended up at a garden that had a slightly
different name but was synonymous to the word "lingering." We walked
around the meandering waterways for a bit then took a taxi, after
being chased around by private car drivers and rickshaw men, to Lion
Forest Garden. This garden is in north Suzhou and is filled with mazes
made from rock pulled from the Tai Lake (it seems as though every
single garden in China has these interesting looking white-washed
stone formations). Legend has it that the former owner got "lost" for
hours with his 20 concubines in the maze. It was actually pretty
confusing and it was fun getting lost in the maze ourselves.
We then headed to the Humble Administrators Garden, which is a short
10 minute walk away. On the way, we tried a lychee like fruit from a
little old lady who wanted 3Y for only 2 of them (!) At (not so)
Humble Administrators Garden (it's the largest in Suzhou), we took a
tour from Lily. Several English speaking tour guides hang out in front
of the garden and are available to give tours for 100Y. We decided to
try it out since the English translations in the gardens are not very
good. It was definitely worth the 100Y as Lily was very nice and
extremely knowledgeable. She explained the significances of the
carvings e.g. the bat murals on the ground were lucky and you were
supposed to walk around them to bring you prosperity. She also knew
the good spots to take pictures and was adept at handling the SLR.
After the garden, Scotty attempted unsuccessfully for 10 minutes to
hail a cab on the street. So we walked a little ways in the direction
of Ren Min Lu, the main drag in town. We were finally able to hail a
cab to our hotel.
After a brief rest, we walked to Guanqian Jie, which is a
"pedestrian-only" walkway (always need to watch for bikes and mopeds!)
filled with stores and restaurants. We ate at Good People Eat's at the
corner of Ren Min Lou and Guanqian Jie – kungpao chicken, the house
fried rice, and fried dumplings. All was very good. Scotty didn't like
the fried dumplings, which had egg yolk and milk inside that made it
taste like French toast. I thought it was very tasty. To order you had
to write what you wanted on a slip of paper and then take it to the
cashier. I was a little nervous that they wouldn't be able to read my
characters, but apparently it was fine. There was slight confusion as
the cashier tried to ask me a few things – in retrospect I think she
was asking about how spicy I wanted the kung pao chicken and then
whether I wanted the coke served cold. After paying and returning to
my seat, our food immediately arrived. It was like an authentic
version of Panda Express.
We walked the 10 minutes back to the Lidu Hotel for a restful night.
This hotel is my favorite so far. Very nice hotel with comfy room
slippers, clean bath, free bottles of water, and internet.
Julia