China: Day 4 - Suzhou

After spending a second night in Shanghai, we boarded our bus and headed to Suzhou (" soo joe").  Along the way we stopped and rode the "Maglev" train. About a 20 minute excursion to 30 kilometers away and back, with speed of just over 430 km per hour. It was 8 minutes each way. The train rides on a magnetic field and sits about 14mm above the track. It was very smooth, but it tended to rock side to side which was a little disconcerting especially at 431 km per hour.

In Suzhou, we were met by another local guide, Jennifer,  who stayed with us while in Suzhou. We started with a visit to the Lingering Garden. Another beautiful garden, bigger than the one in Shanghai, that showed how lavishly the nobles lived in the past. Of course the Chinese Communist government owns all of these now. We took a ton of pictures, but one area I found really interesting was an entire garden area of bonsai trees. I'm sure there was at least 100 of them, and a special one was supposed to be over 500 hundred years old. There was a couple I noticed where the stump looked dead and rotten yet there was enough live material to keep the branches alive. There was some rain, but really just light showers. It was still very warm and muggy.

After the Lingering garden we took a boat ride on the Grand Canal. The canal was built 100's of years ago, to allow the emperor to travel from Beijing to Shanghai. It took approximately  20 years to build. The houses lined the canal, and most still are inhabited. Some of the buildings have been converted to shops and cafes. In the centuries past the people used the canal for all their travel. You could see the steps coming down from the front door to the water at each house, but some have been blocked off or allowed to fall apart. The city of Souzhou became a web of small canals coming off the main one, so the city is known as the Venice of China. The canal we travelled on was so narrow in places it was difficult for 2 boats to pass. There were many friendly people , locals and tourists  who waved as we passed. You would think the locals were be sick of all the gawkwers floating by so close. The best part was the rain had stopped and we were able to stand outside on the boat - and we actually saw some blue sky.

Our hotel was the Pan Pacific Suzhou Hotel, 259 Xin Shipping Road in Suzhou.