Suzhou, the Venice of Asia

Josie and I decided it was time to get out of town. We went to the train station and bought tickets to a little tourist town called Suzhou (population 5.7 million) about a 45 minute train ride from here. It has lots of gardens and waterways for streets. We didn't have time to take a boat through them, but hope to next time. We could take the 9:00 am train there, but the earliest tickets they had for the evening were for 9:30 that night. I asked Josie if she really wanted to do this and she did, so early Saturday morning we packed a day of supplies and off we went. This is Josie in the train station waiting area, one of the many waiting areas, plus all the people outside....people everywhere!

I had researched a few places to visit and had a map and figured we would figure it out from there. I had planned on taking the tourist buses they have to get from sight to sight. That proved to be much more complicated than I thought and so what is the next best plan? How about hop on a little moped with a trailer to get there. You have to bargain for these too, I probably paid more than the Chinese would, but the girls loved it! The first guy told me 40 RMB and I was able to get another guy for 10 RMB. Some people must think all foreigners are idiots, why would I pay him 40 RMB when I could take a taxi for 10 RMB.

The first garden we went to was beautiful, but had way to many people there and was barely enjoyable. There were tourist guides with their megaphones yelling everywhere and the paths were quite tight. Another day this place would be a great get away. Next time we may go there for a peaceful stroll and take more pics of the actual gardens. Here are just a few of the pics from the Humble Administrators Garden.

We then headed for a Buddhist temple, not really that exciting, but something new for Josie. We left there I told the taxi driver we would like to go to a place called Tiger Hill. It was recommended to me by my Chinese teacher. I thought we were heading there and he started to tell me that there would be way too much climbing with my small kids and he had a better place for me to go. I told him thanks, but that is where I wanted to go. He again said there is lots of climbing, I told him I understood what he is saying, but that is where I wanted to go. (This was all in Chinese with my mad Chinese skills!) He pulls up to a place and I didn't know what it was supposed to look like. I quickly figure out he didn't listen to me and then we start to argue about it. I told him that is what HE thinks, but I can decide for myself. I had already unloaded the girls and strollers (of course with Josie's help) out of the car. I told him I was very unhappy with him and then he tells me get back in and he will take me there. I told him no way, I then tried to pay him, and he wouldn't take it. I threw it in his car and I told him we would figure out another way to get there.

At this point the girls were very tired and they really needed to nap. They had been up since 7:30 and it was about 2:00 pm. We read a few signs and decided to go ahead and check this

place out. There were very few people there and maybe only 2 foreigners, so we were able to get the girls to sleep for about an hour while we hung out on one of the paths. The place actually

turned out to be quite beautiful (maybe mostly because it was fairly quiet), but we definitely enjoyed it. Our entrance ticket included a short ride in a boat on the river, the girls thought it was great!

The funniest part was the the following picture of kids on the water in giant beach balls rolling around like gerbils. When we first arrived, there were probably 10 kids out there playing bumper balls! How fun, dangerous, Chinese, whatever it was quite a sight!

On our way out, this little old lady attacked us to have us buy her toys for the girls. They try to just give it to the girls, hoping I will give in. I have started telling them thank you for the present and will start to walk off. They quickly walk away and take the toys with them. I left Josie with the girls to see what kind of ride we could get to the next stop. I came back and there are a few Chinese surrounding her (5 or so). Tally had started to cry and is standing up in the stroller trying to get away. The old lady that was trying to sell her toys started to tell me how dangerous this is. Using my mad Chinese skills again, I told her that if she wasn't in her face scaring her that we wouldn't be having this problem! She turned around and left. The small Chinese that I know is very useful!

We then had time for one last site and ended up at another Buddhist temple, because I wanted to be in a decent area to get a taxi and be somewhat close to the train station. These temples seem to be the same to me, a pagoda and then various statues all over. It was nothing too exciting, but the following picture made it totally worth it. Tally has what we call her Buddha Belly....the Chinese got a kick out of it too!

All day, Adayla had noticed these "lion" trashcans. I told her not to touch them because they were so dirty. We did find some trash for her to put it in it and she was so scared, she thought it was going to bite her! She didn't want to shove the trash in the rest of the way.

It was now only 6pm and we had about 3 hours to kill. We decided to just walk until we found something good to eat. We came to a McDonald's, how convenient! The girls ate a bit and were able to play on the slide. We then found a smaller version of Nanjing Lu, a huge pedestrian zone in Shanghai. We hit up a couple of the local shops selling junk that we probably didn't need, but it was fun!

The girls did quite well all day, considering all things involved, and did okay on the train. Finally about 2 metro stops before getting home they were out! What a day!