Suzhou

Between Nanjing and Shanghai, and on the course of the Grand Canal as it runs north from Hangzhou to Beijing, is the old town of Suzhou. Of course these days a lot of it is modern and it’s not so small, but it still has quite a lot of old amid the high-rises and development.

Suzhou is famous for its gardens. The imperial Chinese loved to build complexes where a house meets a garden, with wooden pavilions giving way to ponds, rockeries and trees in a way that feels natural and symbiotic. The pavilions are the sorts of places where you would spend the afternoon reading or painting, while your koi carp swam around in the pond just outside.

I had a day and a half in Suzhou, which I spent wandering around the gardens and failing to wander around museums. The first half-day, after arrival, involved a ‘scenic area’ with a pagoda and a temple in a little park hard by the city walls and the canal. I walked out of it along the canal and up to the next garden, and finally on to a last garden for the day, and then I walked back along streets with interesting shops and plenty of cafés and so on, with a stop for a beer en route. Near the hotel I found some food and was randomly stopped by a guy who wanted to ask if I was ready to marry and move to China (I ran away).

 

Day 2 was a little less successful and a little more meandering, although mostly I enjoyed it. The temple with the pagoda which started the day was nice, but then the museum was so busy the only time slot I could reserve was in the evening. And the Humble Administrators’ Garden next door, the real draw of Suzhou, was insanely busy once I’d finally worked out how to get into it. I crawled around following queues of tour groups and wished it was less busy.

The other gardens of the day were much less bad, however, and it was nice walking along the touristy street, Pinjiang Road, which is another of Suzhou’s big draws. But the other two museums I had earmarked were closed – at least, one was definitely closed for renovation, and I think I walked past the other but there were no signs or open doors. As it got muggier I got progressively more tired and eventually called it a day, giving up on the evening museum slot.

Despite this I did really like Suzhou, it was walkable and had lots of character.

 

Practicalities:

• Getting to Suzhou from Nanjing was easy – 90 minutes on the train
• Suzhou’s metro is small and easy to navigate, although misses out a chunk of the area you want to visit
• Take your passport when visiting the gardens as you’ll need to show it to get tickets