Sunny Suzhou

They say Suzhou (which is a city about 100 km east of Shanghai) is home to China’s most beautiful women. Although we were not able to prove said statement was true, we were treated to some of the best weather we’ve seen in China so far.

After a somewhat stressful last day in Hangzhou, we arrived in Suzhou looking forward to visiting some of the parks and gardens that the city is known for. The first morning in Suzhou, we stepped out of our hostel, not into a puddle, but into what is deemed to be “clear” skies in China. There were even parts of the day where we could see blueish sky. We got a late start to the day after sleeping in, and after feeding ourselves along the lively pedestrian streets, we headed to the biggest and considered by many to be the most impressive garden in Suzhou. We were quite camera happy as we strolled around the garden, even stopping to set up the tripod along the way.

The Humble Administrator's Garden, biggest garden in Suzhou

 Our nights in Suzhou were spent at our hostel café, where over a pot of tea, Kevin and would challenge each other to games of Gomoku. It’s a game that uses similar black and white stones and game board like Othello, but it’s kind of played like Connect Four, except you have to get five in a row. In other words, it’s Connect Four Plus One More. No, I didn’t come up with that, but it’s quite catchy. Although Kevin fought quite hard, it was still 3-0 for me after our three-night battle. But who’s counting?

We’re heading back to Shanghai tomorrow, but only for a very brief stopover before we board the plane to Beijing! I can’t believe we’re finally going to Beijing. We’ve known all along that we’ll be in Beijing for Chinese New Year, but thinking about that at the beginning of November seemed like it was eons away. And now that our tickets are purchased, and we’re leaving tomorrow, it seems much more real. A little sad too in a way, since that means our trip is on its last legs. But there’s no point in dwelling on that just yet. Our return tickets back to reality still aren’t booked, and I’m pretty content on having our heads up in our travelling clouds for a bit longer.