Our New Daughter: Water Town

(by Suzanne)

Just south and east of Suzhou, there are a cluster of very old small towns with canals running through them. They all sounded lovely; we chose Tongli because it had a bed-and-breakfast on the bb-china website.

We arrived in smoggy Suzhou Tuesday morning during rush hour, after an overnight on a train. Apparently I was the only one who got a decent night's sleep, but even I was a little dazed and disoriented. Fortunately, we ran into a young couple we'd met on the bus from Huangshan the previous day, and they lived just a little past Tongli, so they led us to the bus station.

The little photo on the web site of our room at the b-and-b (Zhengfu Caotang) didn't look that special, so we were astonished at how beautiful the whole place was. We instantly regretted only booking a single night. Not only was it furnished with Qing dynasty antiques, but everything was arranged in a very spare and thoughtful (almost Japanese) way. It was probably the most beautiful hotel I've ever stayed in.

The lobby at ZFCT

A hallway at ZFCT

View of roofs across the first courtyard

The second courtyard, with koi pond

Zhengfu Caotang is in the Old Town, which is closed to motorized traffic, so it is incredibly peaceful. After relaxing briefly at the hotel, we went out for a walk, and soon came across this street musician straight out of Central Casting:

Although there were few Bignose tourists, there were lots of Chinese tourists, also having their pictures taken with him.

The Tongli equivalent of gondolas

Next we went for a boat ride, which was incredibly dreamy. Here are some images from the ride:

Later we went to Tuisi Yuan ("Withdraw and Reflect Garden"), at a Qing dynasty official's retirement home. It was the most beautiful garden I've seen in China.