Suzhou.. Venice of East
Trip Start
Oct 27, 2009
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2
Trip End
Nov 12, 2009
Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
It was almost 7:45am when we arrived to the train station. It was busy. I went to tobacco store to buy a charge balance to my SIM card. By the way, this is my second visit to China but first visit to Suzhou. I bought my SIM card from Guangzhou and I faced a problem when I tried to contacted my family the service is not covered. My GSM card is ChinaUnicom and a friend of mine suggested me to buy Easyown GSM card which costs for international calls (4.60Yuan/minutes). However if you buy the new sim card in Suzhou and use it in another city outside it's province it will cost you more. This is called fee of mobile phone roam.
We checked in our luggage and I stoped for a while for Jack because the officer was checking his backpack and finally they stopped they thought an umbrella something else. Actually I think security measures is varied from one city to another. I see that Shanghai has the best security measures than any airport/or train stations. In my way back to Dubai I was carrying a spray painkiller of knees and muscle in my backpack. I was carrying it all my journeys to avoid knee pain while hiking.I checked in many airport luggage check at Guangzhou (2 times), and Sichuan at Jiuzh-Huanglong Airport (2 times) and they never take it off except at Shanghai. Actually I hadn't knew that it's not allowed to carry it until I was at Shanghai heading back to Dubai.
Back to our topic...
After checking in luggages we went to waiting room. I can't imagine what I will do without a guide because there were no English signs telling you the way the gates.I believe that you can't talk in English even with employee of train station because they didn't speak English! By the way, the boarding ticket from Shanghai to Suzhou costs 26 Yuan. The train is excellent, the seat is comfortable, and the AC is working fine. At the beginning, the employee offers some drinks to buy (not free). One problem is that you can't fit big size luggage at the upper shelf unless you put it next to the main door. I squeezed mine under seat and lucky me it fit fine.
I hopped in the train at 8:38am and after 10 minutes I was on way to Suzhou. Suzhou is the second stop and it takes almost 40 minutes. On the way, you can see many corn farms and European style houses and sometime see nothing!
When I arrived at Suzhou, I went to my luggage and hopped off and it was busy full of people. You need to walk for about 10mins in crowded day to reach the gate. At the gate I saw the guide of Suzhou Mr. Shang. He was a nice guy who speaks English very well and remind of of Europe accent mates. Well, we went to the private car and the driver was great too. I like this city it's streets is full of tress white painted and so many white rocks. It's so peaceful and the weather was cloudy but not rainy. I was lucky at my all itinerary because I hadn't encountered rain at all even the weather was cloudy at some cities such as Suzhou. Suzhou is also famous in silk and painting. It has many IT markets and electronics and has amusement park.
My today itinerary is to visit Lingering Garden, Pan Gate, and No.1 Silk Factory.
I went first to Lingering Garden (留园) which it is a private garden owned by a man known to be government employee and then retired from his work. Now it's a governmental garden and people are permitted to visit and enjoy the scenery.It's now one of the four famous garden in Suzhou and it's recorded by UNESCO as a World heritage site in 1997.
In fact it has many guest rooms with Chinese old style furniture. It's roof even has the dragon shape style of houses and the roof is made of brick. Many show rooms displays owners of the garden in all years, and photos of garden in many seasons.
The owner crash into collecting rocks from all over China especially from Suzhou lakes. You can see many white rare rocks full of holes and groves. Hence, this garden has the most famous rock in China which is 7m high.
You can enjoy drinking tea at teahouse and walk in the garden. I recommend to spend of 1-2 hours at this garden. There is also a shopping room where you can buy some souvenirs of Suzhou.
...To be Continued
