Thursday 10 May 2018
First on “tour” and we needed to be up early, we got up at 5:45am. We needed to get our bags down to the reception area, and be on the bus by 8:30am.
So into the buffet, mostly Asian choices, no surprise there. After some searching a few diehards discovered that there was a toaster, and there was also cutlery. Win and I went for the Asian breakfast as initially we didn’t see anything else.
All of us were ready to go well before the 8:30 deadline. So on the bus and off to the UNESCO world heritage Lingering Gardens, quite an interesting layout with different “rooms”. The area I most enjoyed was the Bonsai area. Thomas explained that the Japaneses took the Bonsai idea from China, so Japan wasn’t the country with the original idea.
Then off to the canals. In the brochures Suzhou, is claimed to be the ‘Venice of the East’. Personally, although I have never been to Venice, I don’t think that thsi would rival Venice. Our tour took us on a boat trip on the Grand Canal. After the hour long tour, Thomas took us to Shantang Street, which has history of over 1,000 years, apparently it is a representation of Suzhou’s old alleys. Thomas pointed out a number of shops and we ate at one of his recommended Won Ton Restaurants – excellent.
After lunch it was back on the bus with a three hour trip to Hangzhou.