Saturday, December 14, 2019

Suzhou | modern charm of water town

Our first leg of our holiday was in the beautiful, timeless city of Suzhou.
In Shanghai

Impressive lunch

After a great 16 course lunch in Shanghai and a long drive to Suzhou, one would learn to appreciate traditional old charm and quaint vibes of Suzhou admist the modern development. Like other provinces, they preserved their old buildings and landmarks well, where no skyscrappers are allowed to be built around them.

I watched and read about the beauty of Suzhou city with its various canals, ancient buildings and captivating landscapes in magazine, articles and tv. It is also well known for classical gardens which ideally a UNESCO world heritage site.

Dubbed the Venice of East (which not ideal as Suzhou has much longer history than Venice!!), it has many canals flowing through the rural district. Boats rowed quietly along the scenic canals.

I felt like I was transported back to the past, absorbing the ancient past and beauty of Suzhou. The picturesque houses made a beautiful background for photographs.


First stop in Suzhou was a lake. Jinji Lake, a very magnificient man-made lake. It was so huge that it would take half day to explore by foot. The water was clear, white blue in colour.


One of the attraction was the view of this building, nicknamed 'pants'. It did looked like pants. 

We spent about 30 to 40 minutes there, walking some stretch of the beautiful waterfront.

Another attraction was this building, Bird's Nest. It resembled the Beijing Olympic Stadium. 



I enjoyed the walk in Jinji Lake. Weather was cold but not too freezing. The place was so clean and well maintained. 


11 comments:

Iwona said...

Great place :)

Reanaclaire said...

Been to Suchow and that was maybe 10 years ago... I don't mind going once again!

PH said...

Very scenic. I'd really like to go there someday.

Natalia said...

Really nice place, sounds like a great day!

mun said...

Suzhou sounds like a beautiful place! The building looks so much like trousers that I wonder was the architect inspired by a pair of trousers to create a design like that.

Nancy Chan said...

A beautiful place to visit. Beautiful scenic waterfront.

The Yum List said...

Oh gee, looks like an interesting place to visit.

Nux V said...

Suzhou is so well-maintained! I went to Shanghai & some nearby ancient towns like this about 5 years ago, but wouldn't mind going there again.

suituapui said...

Somehow, China is never on my wishlist...and these days, anywhere far is not on my list either. Too lazy to travel now, can't stand those long haul flights.

lina said...

Looks nice.
What a nice vacation. :)

Willie a.k.a Reptoz said...

Walauw wey...a vacation to Shanghai..I'm so liking it.