My 3rd day in China, my last day in Beijing, I will surely miss this city.  The next city was Suzhou, a city of west Shanghai, in Jiangsu Province.  We went there by Bullet Train from Beijing.  I was excited, I've never taken fast train before, not while I was in Germany nor in Japan (IKR?!).  And I do like train, I always prefer train to Aeroplane, because I got to see the countryside along the way and because I hate all the processes in the airport.  It was 1,196.5 km far from Beijing, it's supposed to take almost 12 hours by car, but only 5.5 hours by Bullet Train, woohoo!  Just a little info, its top speed is 300km/h (186mil/h) and is planned to be increased to 350km/h (217mil/h).  And how silly I was, I didn't snap the Bullet Train picture, or maybe I did but I deleted it :/


 Anyways, in Suzhou, I stayed for only 1 night and we'd visit Lotus Root Garden, Guangqian Street, and Silk Factory.  There's no airport in the city, therefore visitors either take China Bullet Train or go to the nearest airport in Pudong Int'l Airport in Shanghai City.  Suzhou is known for their canals, bridges, and local gardens. 

I know the weather would be nice that day, that's why I wore black lace blouse with tan leather skirt.  This is my favorite leather skirt to date, but the Lady Local Guide came to me and asked if I weren't freezing, because...haha! I was literally the only one who wore short sleeves, the only one who wore midi skirt, but of course I have a coat at the Bus because it'd be chilly in the evening.  I'm well prepared you know.  Like, during this trip I always packed my training shoes in my back pack while I was wearing heeled boots or wedges boots, so whenever I felt tired, I just changed my shoes ;)  Anyways, enough with the jibber-jabber, let me take you to my first visitation in Suzhou.


1.  Lotus Root Garden (Ou Yuan Garden)

Suzhou is very famous with its gardens, 10 of which are listed in UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  No, I didn't know it until I posted my picture in instagram (Ooops!) Lotus Root Garden was built in Qing Dynasty by Lu Jin In.

Lotus Root Garden, also known as Couple's Retreat Garden, alludes to the term often used in Chinese to refer to a couple because the plant's tightly-bound roots are difficult to break apart. - cityweekend.co.cn

It is lovely lovely lovely and with the nice weather that day, I couldn't ask for more.  The Garden covers an area of 2 acres and features green mountains, ponds, rockeries, exquisite pavilion, and halls, towers, pretty trees and flowers in spring time :)  So many spot to take food pictures, but of course just like the other pretty sites, this place is touristy. Can't help with that :p

Rockeries spot in Ou Yuan Garden

It looks a little like painting when I saw it

Pavilion at Ou Yuan Garden

2.  Guangqian Street

 Move on to the next on my list, after visiting that pretty garden, we went directly to Guangqian Street.  It is located in downtown Suzhou, it looks like a shopping street, but actually, it is a lot more than that.  Along the street, visitors can also find restaurants, shopping malls, theaters, hotels, street food, and souvenir shops for sure.  The meaning of its name "Guangqian" is "before the temple" because it is located exactly in front of the Xuanmiao Taoist Temple.  Guangqian Street has always been the entertainment center of Suzhou, you will find some street musicians or performers too.

Guangqian Street Gate, on the background is Xuanmiao Taoist Temple

Many interesting street food and snacks there, it was too bad, the food was not covered, so I was a little reluctant to try any of them.  Most likely, because my local guide has warned us about the food sold here, not because it's dirty but because it was displayed in the open air, so just precaution.  Shopping in Guangqian Street will make you notice the price difference between Suzhou and Beijing, everything is relatively cheaper here.  This was our last tourist object of the day and the next day we left Suzhou and visit a shop, Chinese pride, the Silk Factory.

Still Guangqian Street, ain't Silk Factory :p

3.  Silk Factory

China is famous with its silk and Suzhou is No.1 in silk production.  In this Silk Factory, you will find out how they produce silk material from the very-very first step (visit the website for further details) To me personally, it was very interesting to watch the process in details, and the Lady Local Guide said that Suzhou is known for the beauty of the girls because, they wear silk material very often.  I don't know if it's true, but the lady does have smoooooooth skin just like silk, oh God, her skin shone like porcelain!  True, this is true!  Most the products sold there are hand-made, then the lady-local-guide showed one of the workers hand, man, really..smooth, she's an old lady, but her hand has no wrinkles. I was in awe, everybody's in awe :D

I don't own this image, it's from chinafacttours.com

The main products are pillows, bed sheet, bed covers, everything that help you to achieve good quality of sleep. Guess what, my parent bought 2 pillows, inside the pillows there are also silk worm's poos, yeah no joking.  The poos or shits of silk worms are also very good for beauty; the cocoons are usually the basic ingredients for famous famous cosmetics products. Various clothing outfits are also available, but the fashion is a little bit out of date.  

Workers hand-making silk quilt, I don't own this image, took it from chinatourguide.com

But fact is, my parents who have trouble sleeping due to their old age, now can sleep nicely, peacefully until the morning comes.  So, I would say, these silk worm pillows were the best purchase on this trip.  Oh and for the price, it's not expensive, for real silk, it's cheap really.  So, if you ever visit Suzhou, you gotta buy some silk products here in the factory, where its originality is guaranteed. Fascinating, these little worms!