Sights of Suzhou

Suzhou is an amazing city. We are exploring new places every weekend. I keep asking Mr. Liu, our driver, "Still Suzhou?" He smiles and nods. Below are some pictures of our first weekend excursion.

We drove out to Taihu (Lake Tai), the third largest lake in China. Very beautiful and like with many things here, there is a lot of developing going on, but all in all, rustic. We drove over to a couple of the little islands that are now connected with bridges. I was still skiddish about getting too far out without an interpretor so it was a car tour only. We then went into the old town of Suzhou, where the canals link the streets (well, canals link the whole city, the country for that matter). Lots of little shops with deals waiting to be had. We went into one and the girls opened up some fresh water oysters. Katie's had almost twenty pearls in hers. Some were quite beautiful. We had pendants made for each of them and a couple for me.

We rode a water taxi up the canal and then walked the backstreets, catching a glimpse of the life the people of Suzhou live. Again, we were gawked at and photographed alot. The girls are used to being asked to pose for pictures. On the water taxi ride back we got into an accident, ramming into another boat. No one of course was hurt, but it certainly jostled us. We made it that day to the base of Tiger Hill, but everyone was pooped and we didn't have sneakers on. There evidently are lots of stairs. We decided to save that for another excursion.