Next stop Suzhou

After spending 2 days in Jiaxing I took the train to Suzhou. I had to queue for about 40 minutes to buy the train ticket and the only train remaining was a slow train which would took 3 hours. My Chinese friends from Hangzhou met me at the train station in Suzhou and helped me find my hostel. Then we went for dinner and in Chinese tradition they order lots of different dishes that we all shared.

Dinner in Suzhou

They explained that I used chopsticks like a child does i.e. I hold them in the center rather than the top but I still manage to eat with them. Even eating the peanuts you can see above. They were staying in a different hostel so we arranged to meet at 8:30am the next day at the north bus station to go visit Tong Li.

Tong Li

Tong Li is about 40 minutes by bus away from Suzhou and is known for its system of canals similar to Venice.

Canal in Tong Li

Outshirts of Tong Li

We walked around the village for a few hours and visited the various gardens and museums. Most of the time people were staring at me and I only saw one other westerner through the full day. I have come across Chinese opera a few times on this trip, but this was my first time to see a live performance. It was a free outdoor performance so I didn't have to watch for too long...

Chinese Opera

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