Suzhou, Jiangsu

Thursday, August 13, 2015

We started the morning tired – all those steps took their toll.  For our late breakfast, we headed to a dumpling place.  Even at that time, we had to wait in line for 30 mins to get them – so good are they.

Suzhou is an old city - 2500 years – and was an artisan city.  It was known for high culture, elegance, arts, silk production, and its beautiful gardens.  We came here for the most famous one - the humble administrator’s garden.  

This garden is more than 500 years old, and it is huge – there are several connected gardens with at least ten pagodas and lakes, many plants, and wonderful stone formations.  The pagodas are furnished with old heavy wooden furniture, and have beautiful names, such as “Pagoda of distant fragrance”, for example.  We spent hours strolling through the gardens.

During our entire trip, we did not encounter many westerners, maybe around 10 per day.  While walking on a street, a few people stopped us to take pictures of them with my children – at one point there were several people taking pictures of them.

Soaking in the hotel pool helped our aching muscles hurting from the mountain.  We topped the day with a dinner at a Chinese-Turkish dinner – there is a Turkish population in China living at the beginning of the silk road.  This food tasted more like familiar food back home.