07 Oct 2018
We visited Suzhou in September 2018 as a day trip from Shanghai. Our guide Celia picked us up at the train station and led us through the Humble Administrator's Garden, pointing out the structure of the garden and sharing the history and delightful anecdotes associated with it. The bonsai here impressed me most. Next we visited the Silk Museum. Celia (a native of Suzhou) is very knowledgeable about making silk, and she demonstrated some of the steps in the fascinating process herself, explaining other steps in detail. This was really the highlight of the day. Next Celia took us to a favorite local restaurant for a delicious lunch (the lotus root fritters were outstanding), where we were the only westerners. Lastly we went to ZhouZhuang water town, exploring the beautiful canals and shops. It's a lovely place, but perhaps a little too commercial. Finally Celia insisted on securing our return train tickets to Shanghai when she learned that we had not yet done so. Overall, Celia was an excellent guide. She did not push us to buy anything but when I expressed interest she was very helpful with information and advice, especially about silk products but also other items. The only reason for a 4 instead of 5 rating was that we didn't find the actual sites to be all that compelling given their UNESCO status - perhaps we were travel-weary after 2-1/2 weeks in China.