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Canals and Gardens in Suzhou

Posted: November 12th, 2012 by Scott

Just to get out of the big city for a few days we took the high-speed train to the small town of Suzhou, which has a meager 9.2 million people.  The area is know for it’s Chinese classical gardens, canals, silk making, and who could forget the Squirrel-Shaped Mandarin Fish.

About to devour our Squirrel Shaped Mandarin Fish.

We spent the day wandering along Ping Jiang Road, an ancient road lined with shops maintaining traditional architectural styles on one side and a canal on the other.

Some tourists being serenaded (if you can call it that) by the singing of the lady rowing the boat.

There were a surprising amount of western style coffee shops in the area, but there were also some interesting street vendors and boutique to look at.

There were lots of these cute trinkets for sale.

We also went to the The Humble Administrator’s Garden, which is the largest and probably the most famous of the classical gardens in Suzhou.

As you can see, it was very popular

The garden was divided into three sections with tons of pagodas, rock features, lakes, bonsai (and tourist).  I imagine it was much more peaceful when it was not opened to the public for tours.

This side of the garden was relatively quiet.

Here’s the link to more photos of the Garden or Canal Streets in Suzhou.