China: June 10: Suzhou

We spent most of Wednesday walking around Suzhou. My behavior, however, could be better described as dragging my tired and bug-bitten self around Suzhou. On the plus side, the weather was nice all day.

I took a good amount of pictures this day. Di Yin took many more. The link goes to a picture of breakfast, the first picture she took this day. A picture of me enjoying air conditioning and then a picture of soft cake desserts ends the set for the day. (If you see a picture of me packing, you've cycled to the beginning of her Suzhou pictures.) I think she took many more pictures than I because I was exhausted and unhappy (due to bug bites). For proof, consider this picture she took of my bug bites.

After breakfast at the B&B, we reversed our path to get to Suzhou: a short rickshaw ride, a slightly longer boat ride, and finally a 1.5 hour bus ride to Suzhou. Once there, we walked the major (pedestrian) shopping streets. These felt much like East Nanjing Road in Shanghai. As Suzhou is known for its local candies, we browsed a number of candy stores. Most candies were made from seeds or nuts and were wrapped in plastic (to preserve freshness for traveling). I tried one specialty hard candy: nothing special. We also bought some cakes to bring home.

We had lunch at Deyue Lou. Aside from an okay eggplant dish and the hedgehog-shaped buns (which looked pretty but didn't taste like much), everything was good. Also, everything was nicely presented, with carved roses on each plate.

I advocated for us to go to the Master of Nets garden, arguably Suzhou's most famous garden. Grabbing a pair of bicycle rickshaws (one per two people), we tried to go but found it closed for renovation. Instead, we directed them to go to the Panmen (Pan Gate) Scenic Area. We found it large and pretty. See the pictures for details. At one point I lay down in the park to rest or even nap, but all that ended up happening was that I got more bug bites. Maybe it was the bugs, maybe it was my allergies, but I didn't get any rest. :(

We left the Panmen park, wandered through a local neighborhood market, then ventured into a fancy 8-story shopping mall. (The malls in Shanghai and vicinity tend to grow up rather than out.) We also walked some downtown streets again: they're good streets for strolling, and prettily lit at night. For dinner, we went to Songhelou, a relatively-famous 100-year-old restaurant that specializes in Suzhou cuisine. We then took a taxi to the train station, passing some canals en route.