Lion Grove Garden is one of the four most famous and representative gardens of ancient classical style in Suzhou City. The other three are Blue Wave Pavilion, Lingering Garden and Humble Administrator's Garden.
Lion Grove Garden was reputed as the 'Kingdom of Rockery'. The rocks were piled up skillfully and ingeniously, and most of them look like lions in different postures and verve: playing, roaring, fighting, sleeping, or even dancing. It is said that looking north from Small Square Hall, one can see nine stone lions standing in a row and that is the Nine-Lion Peak.
But sadly to my own poor imagination, I couldn't find much excitement here at all.
After spending about an hour here, we decided to skip the other gardens.
Hanshan Temple is a Buddhist temple and monastery in Suzhou which is located at the town of Maple Bridge, about 2 miles from the old city of Suzhou.
Before we got to the entrance, people were selling fruits from push-carts. The fruits were the variety of exotic Asian kinds, which one could find almost anywhere in Southeast Asia. The price here were more expensive. I guessed that they were after the tourists.
Temple has been famous since the Tang Dynasty. The temple compound is a scene of luxuriant green creating a secluded atmosphere.
The buildings in it are in an unadorned and natural style. In the center of the compound stands Mahavira Hall. Behind the hall stretches a wooden corridor, at the end of which stands a small tower with a wall behind and a stream in front.
Pingjiang Road in Suzhou is known to be 800-year old street and it is the best
preserved ancient “water lane” in
Suzhou.
It is roughly about a mile long street set alongside with a north-south canal. You cannot find a better place in China in which modernity and tradition match hand in hand.
Before heading to Suzhou, I checked on the lonely planet guide, and found at least 3 famous bridges:
1) Jinli Bridge
2) Xinglong Bridge
3) Yongan Bridge
I took many pictures of the bridges I could find but there were no sign board to indicate the names of those bridges. I have no idea which one is which.
The mile long cobblestone path runs alongside with a canal with willows dipping their branches in the water. Cute little bridges that cross and all flanked by old white-washed local houses. The paddle boats rows on the canal while people stroll along the cobblestone path.
While most of the canals in the city have been sealed and paved into roads, there are two outstanding areas which give visitors a clue to Suzhou's 'Venice of the East' moniker.
On the eastern side of the city, Píngjiāng Lù is undoubtedly the prettier and more popular of the two. This pedestrian road is set alongside a canal. Whitewashed local houses and trendy cafes selling overpriced lattes sit comfortably side-by-side. You can see the locals wring their dirty mops into the canal and are completely oblivious to the hordes of tourist jostling to get their pictures.
On the way back to our hotel, we found more Tea farms that carried all the most expensive tea on the market. Once again, we didn't bother to buy any.
From our hotel to one of the busiest night life streets wasn't too far. It was within 10 minute walk. Shiqian Street has plenty of restaurants, bars and late night shops which sell everything from designer chopsticks, silk, artifacts, household items, golf clubs, and lots of clothing shops with great prices on big brand name clothing for men and women. But I had no idea if they were the real or faked ones. From the price stand point, I guessed they were 90% fake.
Shiqian Street is therefore quite convenient with most of what a visitor would want all in a single street. You can find a good mixture of fast food restaurants like McDonald, KFC, high-end diners included DaMarco Italian restaurant and The Bookworm, a cozy Euro style place inside a classic Suzhou house with live music.
We stayed here for the night and ready to head to Wuxi early tomorrow morning.
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