In true Mayer fashion, we always feel the need to fit EVERYTHING in, so we got up early and hopped a train to Suzhou. This town, famous for its gardens and waterways, lies an hour west of Shanghai and has earned the nickname "Venice of the East." We wanted to see Suzhou and at least the Garden of Humble Administrators, which was listed in an older version of my mom's "1,000 Places to See Before You Die." However, we still had a lot we wanted to do in Shanghai, so this would be an efficient and quick excursion.
We arrived in Suzhou and made our way to the taxi stand, but after three different cabs shook their heads no when we showed them our requested destination, we decided to just get in the fourth cab. Once inside, I handed him the destination written in Mandarin and he started yelling, pulled forward, slammed on the brakes and frantically motioned for us to get out. We're not quite sure why no one wants to take us to this famous garden or what we're doing wrong. I'm wondering if the translation we are using is incorrect and if maybe it says something offensive instead of the actual destination? Either way, clearly we aren't getting to where we want to go in a cab... so we went with plan B, the bus. This proved to be the better option as it cost the equivalent of $0.16 USD and was easy to navigate.
So now we're at the Garden of the Humble Administrators, which unfortunately is mobbed with people. That's our fault for coming on a Saturday, but we didn't have another option. The gardens were pretty, but I'm not sure they were anything better or more significant than the grounds and gardens we've already seen during our travels throughout China. I find it hard to believe that at most, there are only 999 places in the world more fascinating than this.
At least our disappointment gained us some additional time elsewhere in town... to shop! Suzhou has also been called the "Silk Capital" of China, known for its innovative, creative and artistic silk work, so we enjoyed looking at the hundreds of silk scarves, dresses and other silk items for sale.
We opted for a boat ride on the canal, but it was less enjoyable than we anticipated as they overfilled our boat and we were packed onto the small, narrow benches like sardines. Plus the river had a strong smell that wasn't so pleasant on the nose, so we weren't too upset when the ride came to an end. We decided to skip the second garden we were planning on visiting in favor of heading back to the train station in hopes of getting on an earlier train back to Shanghai. Fail... We were frustrated to learn that all trains were sold out until much later in the evening. We have an hour and a half to kill, which isn't enough time to head back out and explore but too long to hang around the train station. Geez, we're really striking out today, aren't we? Maybe we should have just stayed in Shanghai for the afternoon, but at least we got to see Suzhou and form our own opinions.
I haven't mentioned this yet, but in China, the two most popular American chains are Starbucks and KFC. There is literally a Starbucks and KFC on every corner. Luckily for us, there was a KFC in the train station and we decided a little snack of greasy, fried American food might be what we need to put us in better moods. I'm sure we were stereotyped sitting down to eat in that establishment, but it was worth it. I was able to kill the rest of the time waiting on the train flirting with an adorable Chinese baby. They seem to think the blonde hair is pretty cool as well.
Finally we boarded our train back to Shanghai and then rushed to Vue Bar at the top of the Hyatt hotel on the Bund. A local had told us it's her favorite view of Shanghai and I have to agree. You can see both skylines on either side of the Huangpu river and once again, we were mesmerized by the view.
Then it was off to the Former French Concession for dinner. We had met expats living in Shanghai earlier in our travels who had raved about this neighborhood, advising us not to miss it. They were right. A pedestrian-only street lined with restaurants and bars spilling out into the sidewalks amongst boutiques and galleries. It was hopping... the restaurants were packed and people filled the street. We decided on one of the restaurants, sat down to a great dinner and enjoyed the ambience. I could definitely live in this city.
And the clouds have finally parted, so when we got back to our room, we enjoyed a fantastic view of the Shanghai skyline. I can't believe tomorrow is our last day already. How did these 18 days fly by so quickly??
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