Going to Suzhou 苏州

It has been a tiring first week in China and I was still not halfway through. My friends and I were shuffling from Shanghai to the nearby cities every other day and it was tiring. Fortunately, we didn’t have to bring out whole pack with us whenever we go to another city. Today we were going to Suzhou and we will be spending the night there. My friends booked their double room for the entire week in Shanghai, so I had a chance to leave my stuff with them. I brought some change of clothes and toiletries of course. I will be carrying my backpack the whole day so it pays to travel light.

Our train takes us to the nearby city of Suzhou which is in Jiangsu province. I was planning to go to Suzhou to visit some sights the last time but decided against it for lack of time. I reasoned that Shanghai is easy enough to get to and so will Suzhou since it just nearby. Well, I now I got my chance to visit the city. I don’t really know much about Suzhou except that it is somehow associated with beauty. I have seen more than one beauty parlor which was named after Suzhou.

The train ride didn’t really take very long and we only took the D train which was a bit slower, but it still took us less than an hour to get there. Such is the convenience of high speed rail travel. Upon arrival we marvelled at the large Suzhou train station. It doesn’t look like an airport like Shanghai’s station but it was still huge. Outside the train station there was a big Suzhou Station displayed in front in a very Chinese fashion.

We decided to see the sights outside of Suzhou city first since it was still early. As usual there were touts hounding my friend and I think she has already wisened up to them and ignoring them. We spoke in English to keep them away even further. Of course there will always be the persistent ones which will try to make a buck out of you. You can’t really blame them either since they also need to make a living.

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