The Venice of the East?

I’ll keep this one short and focus on some photos. But first… Here’s a striking visual analogy of what a conversation with a non-English-speaking local feels like. For both sides, I guess. Throwing seemingly random words into each other’s face while trying to find some meaning in the context. This is me preparing for a long train ride, trying to find a cup of noodles which doesn’t contain fish or meat.

Getting to Suzhou

Even got sealed toast with butter and jam for breakfast

Master of the Nets Garden, another UNESCO World Heritage site

Actually more of a mansion than a garden

The pool area in the center makes the site seem a lot bigger than it is

A map of the whole place. If Hugh Hefner had lived a couple hundred years earlier, this would have been his crib.

Create your own noodle soup!

We went to this noodle place where you pick your own stuff from the everything-shelf

The egg-sized balls are basically giant fried batter pearls

10 minutes later: BAM – ready to eat. 16 Yuan. Extremely good.

And some sunflower seed ice-cream for dessert

Venice of the East

Having heard this term before, I became a bit skeptic and did some research, a.k.a. a Google query. So here’s a Wikipedia list of more than 40 places that are often referred to as the Venice of the East. Not sure if our Venice was the best, but here are some pictures. 😂