Goodbye Suzhou (再见苏州)

Our two nights in the city of Suzhou flew by too quickly, once again reminding us that 2 nights in one place is hardly enough time to see everything. That being said we really enjoyed ourselves.

On the first day we took a taxi into the center of town to find a place for lunch. We tried a couple different dishes here including 臭豆腐 - stinky tofu - a dish that smells terrible but tastes great. The smelly tofu slices are dipped in a spicy sauce. Amy says there is better stink tofu in Taiwan.

After lunch we trekked over to a 500+ year old garden called "The Humble Administrators Garden", or tongue in cheek "Incompetent officials garden". Like most sights in China this place was massive. As usual we wandered around without a map or guide and took photos of things we liked. The gardens were full of plants, rocks and water features. It was a lot like the Sun yat sen garden in Vancouver only much much bigger and nicer scenery.

In the evening we treated ourselves to a western buffet. We mostly ate the meat and fish but I also had some comfort food in olives and cheese. The smoked salmon was good too. In China everyone drinks dry wine, mostly red. The restaurant had a large selection of Chardonnay (I know some people would REALLY enjoy the variety). We ordered a bottle of the one white wine that wasn't Chardonnay.

Our hotel had a large indoor and outdoor pool so we went for a swim after dinner both nights.

On the second day we set out to find the canals that we came to Suzhou for. Surprisingly there was nothing in the city like we originally thought, so we had to take a one hour cab ride to a village. It was worth it!

We had a private boat tour of the canals for only 100 yuan (about $15). It lasted 30 minutes and was really cool. It's something I'd like to do in Venice if I ever make it.

Here's me on the boat. The only disappointing thing was our paddler guy was continually pestering us to pay him to sing some songs, and continued even after we said we didn't want it. He then begged for tips at the end but we just ignored him.

More canals.

Here is a view of our hotel - Pan Pacific Suzhou. We were both really amazed by everything. The service was phenomenal and even included a delicious breakfast buffet. The total cost for 2 nights was about $160 quite a steal compared to what we paid at some hostels.

We could see this Pagoda from our window and on our last morning today discovered that we could enter another massive garden from our hotel for free! We only had 20 minutes so we rushed around taking some pictures. We both wished we had more time in Suzhou and at the Pan Pacific.

I'm writing this from a fast train taking us from Suzhou to Shanghai. We are in Shanghai for 4 nights where we plan to checkout the 2010 expo sites and do some shopping. This is our last 4 nights in China before we move on to Taipei on Monday.