Suzhou

May 19, 2013
Lynn
Chengdu – Century City Paradise InterContinental Hotel 1

Open on your phone

This article was translated from Chinese by AI.

Actually, I’ve been to Suzhou many times, but I’ve never written a blog post about it. The last time I wrote about Suzhou seems to have been back in my junior year of college…
The biggest advantage of Suzhou is that it’s very close to Shanghai.
The high-speed train takes only 25 minutes, which is practically the same as taking a city bus, except for the price… ~~

This trip to Suzhou was very short, basically a half-day tour. I only visited the Humble Administrator’s Garden and Pingjiang Road, neither of which was a first-time visit.
I had originally planned to visit the Suzhou Museum as well, but since it happened to be International Museum Day, it was packed with crowds, so I had to give up.

As a representative of Jiangnan gardens, the Humble Administrator’s Garden is the largest classical landscape garden among Suzhou’s gardens.
If you come to Suzhou wanting to see gardens, visiting this one alone is basically enough; the rest are pretty much similar.
With these private gardens, it essentially comes down to: whoever has more money builds a bigger garden.

The last time I went to the Humble Administrator’s Garden, I was helping my classmate Xiang Chao take photos, so I didn’t really explore much.
This time was different—I did a complete tour and even hired a guide who gave us a detailed explanation.
It turns out that having a guide at attractions like this is truly worthwhile;
otherwise, it’s just one garden and pavilion after another, and you can’t tell the difference between them at all…

However, because the weather was bad and it kept raining, I didn’t take many photos, so just take a casual look…

The new owner of the West Garden used imported glazed tiles and wrought iron~~~

As an emerging ancient street popular among young people, Pingjiang Road has quite a bit of a Tianzifang vibe. The downside is that it’s a bit too long,
and it runs in a straight line, making it exhausting to walk all the way down, only to have to walk all the way back… Also, the shops inside suffer from severe homogenization; there are only a few types of stores repeated over and over again…
Moreover, it now faces the same problem as Tianzifang: way too many people on weekends… ~~~

In the evening, we went to Wumen Renjia to enjoy classic Su-style cuisine. As a branch of Huaiyang cuisine,
Su-style dishes are characterized by premium ingredients, a fresh and sweet flavor profile, precise control of cooking heat, and rich, savory sauces.

This restaurant has quite a bit of history and is located in an old residence; everything feels very classical.
However, the service staff seemed a bit understaffed, though the food tasted pretty good~~~~

Eel Paste with Sizzling Oil—a signature dish and an absolute must-order here~~~