Even back in America I had heard of the mediocrity of Chinese tour groups, or 旅游团. Our Chinese teacher warned us that most tour groups waste a lot of time on shopping, but when a tour group advertiser approached us outside of the museum, we decided to take it just to see if it really was as bad as people say. Well, it was really that bad, or you could even say it was worse. The appeal was that it was a boat tour that would take us around the different waterways in Suzhou, showing off some of the famous gardens. They didn't mention the little fact that the windows were too short and too dirty to see anything good or take any good pictures. Afterward they took us on a boat to a "silk museum," which was actually just a couple of rooms showing about the production of silk, and then a huge shopping area. Yes, the truth is, it is really better not to use a tour group. After that sidetrack, we escaped from the tour group, and headed to eat some food. We tried it, and we learned, never ever EVER take a tour group...if you don't have to.
Disappointed by the results of taking a tour group, we continued on to walk the streets of Suzhou. Though it was cold and rainy, it was quite enjoyable. We found one of those tourist streets that you can find in probably most cities in China. You know, the ones where they sell a lot of cheap knick-knacks and street food, that are so full of people you have to push your way through them? I really enjoyed walking around this bustling street and seeing all of the interesting things they had to sell.
I asked Hui why Chinese people like to make jade cabbages, but I'm not sure he even knew why, so he just said "you don't think it looks beautiful?" He thought it was funny that I asked that, so he made me take a picture with all the jade cabbages.
In the afternoon we went to this nice little Japanese style cafe. In many popular tourist cities in China, you can see little shops or cafes that sell postcards, and if you write it in the shop, they will send it for you. I decided to buy a few postcards for my family and friends.
The last thing we did on our Suzhou trip was take a boat down the canal. This was loads better than the stupid tour group boat we took, and we really got a great look at some places around this part of the city. While I was looking at it, I was thinking of how beautiful this city is, but how it is different from Hangzhou. I thought of it as being kind of dirty, but not in a bad way. It was dirty in a way that just seemed lived in, that would possibly lose its beauty if it was cleaned. The guide for the tour group said that the best time to see the city was in the rain, and I feel like he was right.
On the way back to Hangzhou, we were not able to get a bullet train ticket, which meant we had a five hour train ride back. We were in different beds on the train, so we decided to go to the food car and sit for a while. Unfortunately, my legs were getting restless, so we went back to the bed car. We arrived back in Hangzhou at 2am. It was a really fun time!
Final thought: I had heard of these fruit before from an article on facebook, and I saw them for the first time in Suzhou. We decided to buy them to see what they were like. If you were wondering, they were grown like that, by putting a mold around the fruit while it is growing. I call them baby fruit, but I have seen some in the supermarket that are shaped like an old man with a big long beard too. In my opinion, they taste kind of like cucumbers.
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