Probably for two full weeks we kept thinking about how we would be able to travel outside Shanghai, given that we were stuck in the campus for a full month and were given days off randomly. But, one afternoon, we found would have the next day to rest and right away someone came with the idea of leaving that evening and going to Suzhou, a city 2 hours away from Shanghai. Everyone agreed and in less than half an hour we were catching a taxi to the Shanghai train station. Half way there, Jake realized none of us had their passports, so we could not check in the hostels. It was a costly ride, but I guess one has to pay for his mistakes.
After grabbing our passports, we took an Expo bus downtown, which saved us a lot of money. Once we got to the train station (Shanghai South), we realized we might not be able to get tickets – the place was full of people who had visited the Expo and were now going back home. We made our way through thousands of people and Haibaos and luckily got standing tickets for Suzhou; it was supposed to be a short ride anyways. The only issue was we were leaving from another train station (Shanghai Railway Stn), so we had to get on the metro and get there.
The train was crowded and people were standing everywhere they could, but at least we were leaving Shanghai. We were finally travelling.
We got in Suzhou much later than expected and went to bed a little before 2am. However, the next day we were pumped and ready to go pretty early.
Suzhou is a very beautiful city in the Jiangsu province and is often called “Venice of the East” because of its many canals and bridges.
The first place we visited was the Beisi Pagoda, which was built in the 12th century. We climbed all the way to the top (76m) and got an amazing view of the city. It was a more traditional Chinese city, completely different from downtown Shanghai. It still kept a lot of traditional architecture and had a warm and relaxed feeling.
Lucky Buddha
From there we headed to the Lion Forest Garden, built in 1342 during the Yuan Dynasty. The labyrinthine rockery is definitely impressive and resembles lions in different postures: roaring, playing, sleeping, etc.
The next spot we visited was my personal favorite: the Panmen Scenic Zone – a combination of canals, pagodas, bridges, water and land city gates. The ticket we got there says it is a “National Tourist Attraction of Grade AAAA” and I have to agree. The place was amazing: we enjoyed walking around for hours, we took a boat trip on the canals, did a bit of souvenir shopping and got our picture taken with the locals.
I particularly enjoyed this place because, unlike the other canals of Suzhou, these ones did not smell and you could see through the water. I guess being a national attraction helped stopping everyone throwing dump in the waters. Also, the pagodas and the bridges were amazing!
Unfortunately, Jake and Tim had to teach the next day, so they got a train back to Shanghai, and Dan and I were left alone to make our way through China, without our secret weapon: Jake’s fluent Chinese… we decided to spend another night in our hostel and head for Hangzhou the next afternoon.
The pond in the inner garden of the Suzhou Museum.
The next day, after visiting the Suzhou Museum, we decided to have lunch. Fortunately, we happened to walk into a restaurant that had pictures of the main dishes displayed on the wall and you just had to check your choices on a menu. We didn’t want to be the typical tourists that point at pictures so we did our best to recognize the characters of the 3 dishes we wanted and mark them on the menu. Then we asked for tea (cha) and two bowls of rice (fen). We felt incredibly proud of ourselves and then we were off to our new adventure: Hangzhou!
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