Canals, Crabs and Cakes in Suzhou

We arrived in Suzhou fairly late on Thursday night after a 5 hour train journey from Wuhan.  Our hostel was called the Waterfront Inn, a bit misleading considering it wasn’t that close to any of Suzhou’s canals! But it was great, and we had a fancy mezzanine room which we promptly fell asleep in!  On Friday we explored Suzhou.  Weather was fantastic, and we were happily strolling around in t-shirts again.  Got a few funny looks from the Chinese who were wrapped up in coats, but it must have been mid 20’s so we were perfectly happy!  So much so that when we arrived at one of the many parks we had a snooze on the grass by the river!

Next we headed to Pan Men, described in our guidebook as one of the most pleasant areas of the city.  It was an area within the old city walls, surrounded by two canals and a park.  After competing with other tourists for the obligatory photo opportunities we went over to Wangshi Yuan, an old temple and Chinese garden, stopping off for coffee and cake  en route.  There are loads of bakeries in Eastern China, so we’re upping out caffeine and calorie intake!  We browsed some of the local shops on the way to Suzhou Park, a really lovely green area in the middle of the city.  There was a big square playing traditional Chinese music and we sat for a while to watch local couples dancing.  There was also some sort of karaoke machine at the other end of the park which was overrun with people singing very badly! Click here to read more…