Suzhou and Tongli

IF anyone were coming to Suzhou, I'd highly recommend going to Tiger Hill in the North West of town. A much more appealing and varied garden would await them there than at the Humble Administrator's Garden, for 10 Yuan less. Although the food had beforehand was not too hot and vastly overpriced, and despite the dozens of wedding shops surrounding the entrance, the garden and hill (artificial) itself was beautiful, and much quieter than the Humble Administrator's.

I would also recommend going to Tongli, a beautiful town set among extensive waterways and winding streets. Although of course there was a lot of tourist crap there, and the food was overpriced, it was nice to see the sweets you find in these parts being made, and most of the town was fairly quiet and hassle free. The Sex Museum might not appeal to all those who visit Tongli...but I rather enjoyed it. The dirth of large penises aside, the buildings housed some interesting exhibits (some exhibitionists, or rather, pieces about them), and had some interesting texts about sex in China – although these were sometimes somewhat short, this might be a blessing given the sometimes dubious translations.

In short, the town is beautiful in itself. Although famous for its gardens, I really can't afford to pay 80 yuan to get into each of them, nor do I have time - and I suspect it isn't necessary given I've had a very nice time wandering around the streets, and going to the few things I have seen.

Last night bought the first food problem of the holiday (not bad going for 6 weeks in). Ordering from an English card in a semi-chain restaurant place I think I pointed at the chinese above what we wanted rather than below. We got a VERY spicy beef noodle soup, some 'corn bread and mashed potato' things which were pretty vile and goey (but I think I actually meant to order them), and some white sliced vegetable like a very mild radish, which was warm and also horrible. Fortunately we'd paid after ordering...so we made a runner, barely touching the food. Instead we went to this great place called 7 + 7, a cafeteria type place where you just select the dishes you want from the counter and pay when you sit down. Although a lot of the food was cold (always a problem with this kind of place) it was mostly delicious, and by that time quality wasn't so much wanted as just something edible.

Anyway, I bought some tea today. I don't remember what kind which is a touch unfortunate as I may not be able to buy more, but I'm going to go drink some of that now, and then hopefully find some fried dumplings. Moving to Nanjing tomorrow, so the next post should be on that!