Suzhou Tours

Suzhou is about 150km south west of Shanghai, and only about 30 minutes by fast train. It's a reasonably large city of about 7 million people, however because it is so spread out the volume of people is not always obvious.

I have moved to Suzhou from Australia and have been surprised by how western things are here in SIP in particular. There are 4 starbucks within 1 km of where I live, and a large number of restaurants specialising in western food. Singa Plaza is a great place to eat with 8 or 9 western restaurants from Indian to Mexican lined up in a row just waiting to be tasted.

Getting around is pretty easy in Suzhou. The buses are only 2 RMB, but the maps of the routes are pretty haphazard, thankfully though the Taxis are well cheap with a base price of 10 RMB (US$1.20) for 4 km and very little thereafter. Make sure you have written down in Chinese where you want to go, or a picture of where you want to go, or some link to an angelic deity, because the likelihood of you finding an English speaking taxi driver here is so close to zero it's not funny.

To complete your cultural experience make sure you head to Auchan the supermarket (pictured) on a Saturday afternoon. You may never see as many people in one place again in your life. You'll also get to experience such things as zero personal space and the ability to push people out of the way with your trolley without anyone thinking that that's inappropriate... It's a crowded country it's just the way it is...

Suzhou is pretty cool, though there are not too many big ticket items to see. If you are only in China for a short time I feel it would be better use of your time to hit Shanghai and maybe dash out to Lake Taihu for a day rather than come here. However if you have some time up your sleeve and you're into Chinese gardens pop in for a look.