I've been to Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Jiaozuo, I've been everywhere (Part 1)

We began our trip around China at the Beijing Train station.  I was very proud of myself that we sucessfully boarded and got off the train without problems.  However, that's where our trouble began.  We assumed we were close to the middle of the city (Dennis told us we got tickets for Suzhou Jin, but we thought that it was still close by).  We were actually forty minutes away from the city, and our taxi ride ended up costing a lot!  The driver couldn't even get us to our hotel, so we had to walk down this narrow street for a good 15 minutes with our luggage in tow.

After we finally got to our hotel and de-compressed from the stressful drive and walk, we decided to explore.  We saw Suzhou dialect story telling (to us unintelligible), The Master of Nets Garden, ate Uyghur food and ended the day exploring the street we dragged our luggage down.  In the end it turned into a good day.

Storytelling

Master of Nets Garden

 Action shot!

 Cool bookshelf at Master of Nets

 Yes, only in the sun of civilization...

The next day we bought our ticket to Hangzhou and discovered that there were Coco's in Suzhou! (Coco's is a Taiwanese bubble tea shop that is quite delicious)  After we went to the silk museum, the Humble Administrator's Garden, the Lion's garden, and the Couple's Retreat Garden.  I loved how each garden had it's own quality, no two Garden's looked the same.  When we visited temples in Tibet, after the 4th one they started blending all together, but each Suzhou Garden was unique.

Fan Fan Concert! (Fan Fan was an artist my first year professor was obsessed with) 

The canals of Suzhou

 Christmas time in China

The infamous Lotus shoes for bound feet at the silk museum

Humble Administrator's Garden

 Lion's Garden

 Couple's Retreat Garden

In the evening we ate at a tea shop recommended in the guide book and went on a boat ride.  On the way back we took a wrong turn and got lost, but we eventually found our way back and no harm done.

Suzhou at night

 Our tour guide played music and sang for us

Part 2 coming up soon!!