Traveling Suzhou : Humble Administrator Garden

There is a famous phrase in  China, "There is heaven above and there is Suzhou and Hangzhou below”. Luckily  I got the chance to see one of this city.

My 6 weeks assignment in Wuxi took me to Suzhou. Wuxi is a pretty one itself. But let's stick to Suzhou in this article. 

Locating 120 km from Shanghai, Suzhou is also known as The Venice of the east. This city was made of 60 % water. Also recognized as the  wealthiest city in China.

I visited Suzhou  with  local friends (which has made thing easy because of the languange barrier). I can't read or even speak. The accent is soooo difficult, even for the (native) Asian person like me. To make it worse, Google Maps doesn't work  in china. Uh, oh -_-.

We departed from Wuxi,  with High Speed Trains costs around 20 yuan  (3 euro only!). Then we reached Suzhou main station within  15 minutes.

Suzhou main station

Statues in front of Suzhou main station

We havent decided  how to get around  the city. We were thinking to stroll around on our own. But then, a local tourist guide were luring us to go with the  them on a reasonable price.

One thing about  the tourist  attraction in China, it's quite costly if you visited  couple of places  in a row.

The guide was offering  4 visits to landmarks of Suzhou  for  180 yuan  (26 euro), a full day trip. Admission fee and  transport covered.  That admission fee  for one garden costed  90 yuan, so we thought  that was a good idea.  

At first, one of  my friend was a bit reluctant,  but in the end he decided to come along.

We traveled with a tour bus. They provided a nice  lady to be our guide. She looked quite informative, however she only spoke in mandarin :(. All tourist in the bus were locals except me. Hahaha -_-. So I relied on my friends about whatever she explained.  

Our  first destination was  The Humble  Administrator's Garden (Zhuōzhèng Yuán).

Qimen district

This is considered as one of the finest & largest garden in Suzhou,  51,000 m2.  Some say even in China itself. My friend was joking that  if you have visited The Humble  Administrator's Garden, you don't need to visit  any other  Garden in China. 

Dongbei Street

                                                 
When we arrived  at Humble  Administrator's Garden ( 11.00AM), the place was quite full of people. No wonder, it was weekend
.  

The Garden's Entrance

Inside,  we were seeing some small pavilions, trees, and Taihu Shiji (limestone which is shaped  by erosion).

Pavilion and Taihu Shiji.

Also, the frst time in my life seeing ...  Lotus!

a nice view of the garden

We were then wandering inside the pavillion and passing the rainbow bridge. See the bridge? A nice one, no? ;).

We noticed some ceramics. In local language, ceramic = china. Perhaps the name China comes from their skill to produce "China" in the past. 

China ceramic

Of course, without the moon gate that bring good luck, Chinese garden won't be completed :). 

The Moon Gate 

Some pavilions are completed with stairs. In the past,  people  always sleep in the 2nd floor :).

In some parts of the garden, they have Bonsai Pots. 

It took us  nearly  2 hours  to go around the whole place. The weather was nice at that time. I recommend anyone to visit  the garden  if you have a chance. You'll get  the  atmosphere  and ambiance that were so "China" in this place.

I, my self,  felt the tranquility and peace while walking in this garden.

ponds surrounding the garden

Here my 2  friends who  accompanied me  in the trip. Big thanks to you guys.

After  finishing  the garden's trip, we  took  lunch somewhere on the street. Then recoup back to the  bus, as we were heading for the next  landmark.

You can also see my picture slides about this garden in my youtube channel here ^_^. 

Regards,

-Dani Rosyadi-