Part I, Ben
Today, we woke up bright and early at 4:30am to catch a 7:00 bullet train to Suzhou. Although it wasn’t one of the fancy floating trains, we still reached speeds upwards of 200mph! It took us about 5 hours to go over 1000 miles to Suzhou. On the way, we passed by the birthplace of Confucius, Qufu. We ate lunch at a tea house in Suzhou, and then went to the Humble Administrator’s garden. After that, we took a tour boat through the grand canal, where we saw many houses leading right into the water. On the tour we passed under a bridge called the Marco Polo Bridge comemorating when Marco Polo came to the city. Suzhou is often called the “Venice of the East” because there are many man made canals throughout the city.
Part II, Felix
Following lunch we visited the Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou. It is considered to be one of the four best gardens in all of China. When we arrived we learned about the history of the garden and its design. Then we got to explore the garden on our own. The landscaping was amazing and it was hard to believe that the garden was man made. The trees, bonzai, and other plants were very foreign to us but very pretty. The whole garden was very peaceful and relaxing even though there were many other people there. It was huge, and it took us almost two hours to explore all of it. The garden was very beautiful and we all enjoyed it a lot.
