Suzhou, China
Suzhou’s gardens were not built to be pretty. They were built by retired scholars and officials competing over who best understood the point of a garden, and the rules are strict: a garden should never be visible all at once. You turn a corner, a window frames a rock, you turn again and the view has been taken away from you.
Nine of them are UNESCO listed. You do not need to see nine.
- The Humble Administrator’s Garden is the largest and the one everyone goes to. Arrive at opening or it is shoulder to shoulder.
- The Lingering Garden is smaller, better composed, and usually quieter.
- The Master of the Nets Garden is tiny and is the one gardeners rate highest. Some evenings it opens late with music in the pavilions.
Beyond the gardens:
- Pingjiang Road runs alongside a canal and gives you the old city at walking pace. Cross the small bridges and go one street back from the main one, where the shops stop and people are hanging washing out.
- Suzhou Silk Museum. The city made silk for the imperial court for centuries, and the museum keeps live silkworms.
- Tiger Hill, with a pagoda that has been leaning for a thousand years and is more tilted than the one at Pisa.
Practical:
- Thirty minutes from Shanghai by high speed train, which makes it an easy day trip. Staying a night gets you the gardens before the coaches arrive, which is the whole difference.