The day began early as we made our way to the Shanghai railway station at some ungodly hour that I do not quite remember. Half of the group for some reason had decided to stay up most of the night and only got around three hours of sleep. We took the bullet train to Suzhou, cut the trip down to just thirty minutes and for just 41RMB ($6) it was quite a deal.
When we arrived in Suzhou, we took taxis as close as we could to the hostel. On the way to the hostel we got sidetracked buying Suzhou style moon cakes at a bakery that was famous for them and it had quite the line to back up that reputation. Initially, I was going to pass on the moon cakes because I had tried them back in Shanghai, but I figured I am in Suzhou and these are Suzhou style moon cakes so I should probably try them. This of course turned out to be the correct decision, because those moon cakes were pretty amazing and much better than the ones I had in Shanghai.
Suzhou style moon cakes
The walk to our hostel was quite beautiful. We made our way through narrow alleys that ran alongside canals. I had imagined Suzhou to be a sleepy canal town, which is what I saw while walking, but the crumbling buildings and murky water took away from the beauty I had heard from my parents and tour books. From the outside, our hostel did not look like much but once I entered, I was struck by the place. The antiquated look and layout of the hostel made me fall in love with it. I felt like I had walked into one of those ancient Chinese drama sets. In addition, it was extremely clean and cheap as well. However, while checking in, I fell asleep sitting down which marked my energy level for the rest of the day.
Walk to the hostel
Our hostel
The next stop was the tourist center of Suzhou, because we needed a map and a destination since unbeknownst to me, we had nothing planned. After some wrangling, we settled on visiting one of those ancient Chinese gardens that Suzhou was so famous for. The garden itself was somewhat dull. Some parts of the garden were pretty but there was nothing that really took my breath away. Except for the behavior of the Chinese tourists who seemed to have free reign over the entire garden. In the states, I am used to there being designated walkways and clearly marked paths for tourists visiting a historical site. This was simply not the case at the Suzhou garden as tourists wandered everywhere and climbed every rock and crevice imaginable. I wonder how long the garden will last if tourists keep treading everywhere.
Garden
After the garden, we spent another long while deciding where to go. Eventually it was decided to visit the largest pagoda in Suzhou. This sounded intriguing at the time but once I arrived and scaled the pagoda, I realized that there was nothing to it but a great view of the city. Climbing down from the pagoda, I was starting to get frustrated with the huge crowds of tourists everywhere, and I expressed to Linda about my wish to find a place that has a traditional Chinese feel to it without being touristy. I wanted to find a place in China similar to those small European towns which still had their traditional feel. Linda told me such places have most likely all disappeared, but I still have hope.
Largest pagoda in Suzhou
Great view of the city
The last attraction we went to was a site where the last remnant of the city wall and gate were preserved. When we arrived, we discovered that it was much more than just a wall but also a whole section of preserved and rebuilt ancient buildings. We arrived about half an hour before it closed, meaning we had the place all to ourselves, which was a welcome change from all the crowds. The wall and gate themselves were nothing to write home about it, and it was only once the sun went down that the place’s beauty began to show. As the whole place was lit up with lights, everything just seemed magical. I do not understand why they close so early because things look a lot better at night than during the day. This last attraction was by far my favorite and a good way to end an exhausting day of sightseeing.
A beautiful sight with the sunset
The gate and wall were the least interesting part of the attraction
Everything gets better when lit up with Christmas lights
Finding a restaurant for dinner took forever to get to due to even more indecisiveness and this was when my patience finally wore out. When we finally decided and found a restaurant, the meal itself was good. We ordered a fish that Suzhou was famous for, which was good but nowhere near as good as Cantonese seafood. After dinner, my attitude towards the whole trip just got worse and everybody noticed it. Nick found it all quite hilarious, telling how he saw my attitude progress from tolerant, to annoyed and then finally to fuck everybody and everything.
At the end of the night, as the trip “planners” talked to the hostel owner about Wuxi, the lack of planning became more apparent. I predicted a disastrous day so I made up my mind to leave and go back to Shanghai the next day.
Thankfully I had a backup plan which was to watch Qi Li’s freshman performance.
-muffinman
Suzhou Album
