Suzhou - Old Town Street Scenes and the Pan Gate Area

Letter boxes

Yellow rice wine

􏰓Pan Gate Area dating from 1355.
This contains an outer moat and part of the old city wall which was used for defence in days past.  The water gate was used to control waterways.  This is the only remaining original coiled gate.  

Suzhou - The (not so) Humble Administrators Garden

This is the largest of Suzhou's gardens and stunning.  It's 5.2 hectares and first built in 1509.  It's got it all:  water features, museum, a teahouse, bridges, bamboo groves,  bonsai garden and fragrant lotus ponds.  There are at least 7􏰗􏰟 pavilions with names such as 􏱝"Listening to the Sound of Rain􏰑" and 􏱝􏰧"Faraway Look􏰏ing"􏰑 pavilions. 

Civilization is certainly something to be cautious of

Suzhou. North Temple. This has old China like I wanted to see.

I hadn’t yet found a sense of “old China” in Yixing (pronounced Yee-shing) the city where I live.  We have lots of glitz, technology and high rise apartments etc.  After 2 weeks in China, I felt I was in a bit of no mans land and needed to see some history.

So intrepidly, I headed for Suzhou, a bus ride of 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  It, along with Hangzhou also happens to be one of the two silk capitals of China.  

Catching a bus, booking and staying in a hotel sound like really easy things to do. However, for me at this stage of my China stay these require much thought and planning. First you have to find a hotel which will accept foreigners - not all do.  And on Booking.com they don't necessarily tell you.  Booking.com and the internet weren't working when I was trying to book so a phone call was needed which thankfully resulted in a great room at the Yishe Hotel Shilu Road Metro Station Branch.  Tiny tiny room but it was perfect.  Would have to have been designed by someone who travels.    When you can't speak or read the language and when a country doesn't seem set up for tourists there are  also the issues of how to get to the bus station here in Yixing and find the bus station in Souzhou when I returned.  Not to mention the issue of maps and getting around Suzhou.  I LOVE a map. Holding it and working out where you are, where north is and plotting a route for where you want to go.  There is a map app on my mobile phone but it's all in Chinese and thus no help.  There are no paper maps of Yixing, or apparently of Souzhou.  I asked in Suzhou at the "Tourist Information Centre", but maps are not something they have.  Over the 2 days I was in Suzhou, the only people I saw who didn't appear to be Chinese were 3 people travelling together from Germany.  I think Chinese are the main tourists within their own country.

Buying bus tickets was entertaining.  I can't read signs, so you check out where most people are going to find the floor where you buy tickets.  The lovely girls I work with wrote everything in Chinese and taught me to say Suzhou properly - or I thought so, but no one at the bus station could understand me. They also wrote down the times of the buses I would take. Finally, ticket in hand I have to try to work out which of the 30 gates is the one where the Suzhou bus leaves from and not get on the other bus that leaves from that same gate etc etc.  Smiles all round and seeing it as a bit of a game help greatly.  

Thank goodness for the Baidu translate app - you type in a word in English and it (mostly) translates it to Mandarin.

Pagoda - North Temple

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Suzhou was everything I was hoping for. "The Venice of the East".   This is "old China" writ large.  An "old part of town" with Temples, canals, ancient buildings, gardens, small streets and not too much traffic.  It’s one of the 2 silk capitals of China.   One of the gardens was delightfully called “The Humble Administrators Garden” - nothing humble about it if you ask me.  There were artisans making beautiful pieces from bamboo, and of course the Silk Museum.   I can’t explain just how beautiful it was.  And.... an added bonus - it is autumn so the colours were stunning.

After an hour and a half on the bus we arrive.  No trying to negotiate local buses, I take a taxi to the old part of town.  Taxis are so reasonable.  Travelling 5 km costs about $2.30 Australian.  



North temple

One of my favourite photos