Suzhou

Yay! Roadtrip . . . Phil had a business meeting in a nearby canal town and I decided to join him to take in the sites. Only 2 hours out of Shanghai and we were in a fun city with lots of canals and beautiful gardens. Just behind our hotel was an amazing garden on a lake featuring 1000 year old temples and water gates.

The Ruiguang Pagoda is a Buddhist temple built 2500 years ago in 247 BC. It is made of brick and wood and stands majestically at one end of the gardens.

Ruiguang Pagoda behind hotel

Phil was very interested in the Pan Gate and how the water was allowed in and out of the waterway. The land and water gate is part of the ancient city wall built in 514 BC and was the only entrance to the ancient city.

Rockery and Waterfall near Pan Gate

We took several tours with the Air Product's group and enjoyed a traditional Chinese lunch Suzhou style! There were lots of things I recognized but the bowl of what looked like cottage cheese put me over the top. Once you dipped in the bowl,  translucent fish the size of your pinky finger moved to the top. They were almost clear, just two beady eyes staring you down. Chopsticks down! Lunch is over!

Suzhou Canal outside Restaurant

The tour of the Lingering Garden was my favorite. In ancient times, women were not allowed to go outside of the family home, so wealthy families built their own private family gardens for the women to enjoy a bit of the outdoors. This garden included multiple pagodas and a beautiful koi filled pond. A Chinese opera singer was singing in her wooden boat in the middle of the garden.

Opera Singer in Lingering Garden

The Chinese opera is very popular in Suzhou. It takes some getting used to but sounds a lot like a screeching cat fight.  The costumes and face paint were much better than the singing.

Suzhou Opera Screechers

Our final stop was Tiger Hill. We climbed the hill to see the Pagoda at the top and listened to senseless legends our tour guide shared with us along the way. By this time, I was becoming overwhelmed by the number of people crowding in to walk up the hill with us. There were too many people to fit on the pathway to get to the top but we persevered.

A group of monks were among the crowd using their phones and IPads to take pictures of the temples. They were like a bunch of rowdy college students. Not what we were used to in Thailand.

Monks at Tiger Hill using their IPads to take photos

We would love to go back to Suzhou, only 25 minutes from Shanghai via the high speed train. The canals and smaller backstreets are lined with tea houses and cafes and you can even ride on a Venice-like gondola to see the villages. Now, if we could just convince you to come to visit . . .