Rice is Nice

Suzhou is about an hour from Shanghai by train. There's a Chinese saying that goes "Marry (or born in) Suzhou [due to the beautiful women], live in Hangzhou [presumably due to the beauty of the city], eat in Guangzhou [lots of dim sum or something], and die in Liuzhou [good coffins, I think]." Hangzhou is the next stop after Shanghai, so there was an opportunity to follow that advice pretty closely. Alas, I did not get married on Saturday. There were plenty of pretty girls, but no more than in Shanghai (where there are plenty).

Suzhou is supposed to be beautiful, but what you face upon arrival is anything but. The train station is dusty and chaotic, and one has this sinking feeling that the trip out of Shanghai was time and money wasted. Suzhou's main attraction, actually, is its gardens. The town is criscrossed by canals, which are somewhat pretty but also function as sewers. Some of these canals are channeled into the decorative gardents of Suzhou, some of which are quite large. They're not cheap to enter, so the people with the right idea are those that take beverages and newspapers, and pick a perch from which to enjoy the scenery and catch up on reading. Most of the Chinese tourists take their time getting each other to pose for pictures, with this rock or that, holding a branch of a tree in this way or that. In fact, the Chinese take so long setting up photos that we have abandoned the American custom of waiting for people to finish their picture-taking before walking through the frame. We would be standing there forever otherwise.


Suzhou, a city of canals, or open sewers

Garden in Suzhou

We walked the quiet streets of Suzhou's neighborhoods and went to a silk museum, and made our way back to Shanghai. We celebrated our last night with Shin in Shanghai by venturing to the bar atop the Jin Mao Tower, in the Grand Hyatt. The views are good (but not as good as the views to be had in Hong Kong), drinks are tasty, and prices are stratospheric. But it was a nice night, and in keeping with our experience in Shanghai, an authentic one or not, of an indulgent place with plenty of good (but not cheap) food and drink.