Suzhou - Venice of Asia

Perhaps one of the most beautiful cities in China must be Suzhou also known as the Venice of Asia due to its many canals.

Here we had good looking male tour guide (apparently a University graduate) who took us to the 7-mile ShanTang Old Street. We saw Chinese boats cruising up and down the canal. The front doors of the houses at the Old Street opened up to the road but the back door opened up to the river that was very clean. It was a beautiful sight with the overhanging trees and lanterns in the background. Truly it reminded me of Venice but in a more old-fashioned way.

We were left to explore the small curiosity shops along the street but we did not find anything we could buy as souvenirs.

Later we were taken to see our 3rd show - the Suzhou delicate traditional song and dance show at the Suzhou bird nest theater. Like I said this trip is unique in the sense that we could video tape every show we watched in Hangzhou, Wuxi and Suzhou. 

Some common features of Chinese shows:

1. lavish back-drops making use of the digital images of beautiful Chinese sceneries like a sense surround

2. awesome stage that can rise or go up and go down

3. fantastic acrobatics and stunts

4. flying stunts

5. traditional music and instruments

6. song & dancing include fighting scenes that are graceful but with a story to tell

It was here that Tim and I got lost as we were the last to leave (going to toilet) and we took the wrong escalator down the other entrance. Praying so hard, we back-tracked and waited for the taiyo at the reception area. Thank goodness she came back for us!