The Jinji Lake area in Suzhou is truly a remarkable zone. Distinct from the classical Jiangnan garden aesthetic that characterizes the rest of Suzhou, it stands apart with a style all its own. Although it’s part of Suzhou, getting here by metro from the city center takes over half an hour, whereas a high-speed train ride from Shanghai takes only 20 minutes. Once you step out at Suzhou Industrial Park Station, you’ve entered this unique enclave.
What makes this area so special is that it’s practically tailor-made for leisure and shopping. There aren’t many office buildings, but the selection of hotels is exceptionally comprehensive—easily rivaling Shanghai’s offerings. The malls and dining options are equally impressive, and it’s even home to an Eslite Bookstore, which hasn’t yet opened in Shanghai. Plus, with such a short drive from Shanghai, it has become an ideal weekend getaway for Shanghai residents.
Although the area gets packed on weekends, compared to downtown Shanghai, the crowds are still manageable. Parking isn’t hard to find, restaurant queues are reasonable, and unless there’s a convention or special event, hotel rates remain fairly moderate. Occupancy rates, however, are consistently high—rooms often sell out completely. But even when fully booked, the total number of guests the hotels can accommodate is still far fewer than the throngs of Shanghai locals who take the metro into the city center.
This time, I tried the Hyatt Regency Suzhou—my first stay at a Hyatt property. I booked a Deluxe Room, which, while considerably larger than the 40-square-meter entry-level room, didn’t really make much use of the extra space. In fact, the additional area felt rather empty. The view faced the urban district rather than the lake; outside the window were only high-rises—some even taller than the hotel itself—and they were uncomfortably close.
I have to mention the hotel’s bizarre elevator system: five elevators, but only two call buttons located in the middle. After pressing one, an adjacent elevator might open—but since you’re not standing right next to it, you may not notice before the doors quickly shut again… So your only option is to press the button and immediately step back, scanning all the elevators to guess which one will arrive, then rush over to stand beside it. It’s incredibly user-unfriendly. Aside from that, everything else was fine: the mattress was comfortable, I slept very well, and breakfast at the lounge was quite good. I’ve heard the hotel’s Chinese restaurant is excellent—I’ll definitely give it a try next time.
From the lounge, you can still catch a faint glimpse of the lake.
Eslite Spectrum has always been a must-visit destination here, though the rainy weather kept crowds relatively light this time. Learning that the planned Shanghai store won’t be opening after all was quite disappointing. As for whether a Shenzhen location might still materialize, who knows? For now, Mainland China has only this single Suzhou outpost. Boasting the largest collection of traditional Chinese-character books on the mainland, and being the only Eslite bookstore to date housed in a self-owned property, it excels in nearly every aspect. Spending a joyful day browsing its shelves couldn’t be easier. A more detailed review can be found inanother blog post, so I won’t elaborate further here.
Photos in this post taken with a SONY A5100 + 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, post-processed in Lightroom.
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