Brief Sojourn in Suzhou

On Sunday, we made the trek to Suzhou, which is a quick train ride away from Shanghai. The pleasant thing is that there are very few tall buildings. I would say, however, that the train station is a major obstacle for tourists. They're doing massive construction across the street, so in addition to all the dust and noise, it's not immediately clear where to go to escape the van touts and hopeful tour guides.We made the decision to escape to the Humble Administrator's Garden (Zhuo Zheng Yuan), which is a 16th century garden covering many acres. Not always the best choice with a bunch of kids, but it was so nice compared with the train station that it was worthwhile. The weather was excellent, and there is a nice pedestrian street (DongBei Jia) fronting it and the fancy new Suzhou Museum.

The pedicabs, as you can see here, are covered with ads. They seem (as in other places) to be actually used by locals. The good news is that the drivers didn't really seem to be too interested in pestering us to take them. One "no" would suffice...