Suzhou a Noodle Affair

I ended up spending more days in Suzhou than intended. Suzhou had that kinda of effect on me for it was a city that had a vibrant mix of new and old with a twist of way too many tourist which in itself created a spectacle just for tourist to watch other tourist. 

The high end hostel was also another reason for a comfotable extended stay. I was thinking then, that backpacking China would be a luxury if all the hostel was like this and so far Shanghai and Suzhou hostel standard was pretty damn good but then my dreams would be crashed immediately in Hefei and Wuhan.

Suzhou Noodles 

The first introduction to Suzhou Noodles was from the Hostel Owner and I trusted my gut and tracked down the recommended restaurant ignoring all the rest along the way. Turns out to be a more ‘atas’ place but still affordable and the first place set the tone and I knew that this city is going to be a noodle hunt of sorts when the noodles itself is named after the city.

There was so many interesting Noodle shops all around Suzhou that I had to pick carefully since stomach capacity is limited. Suzhou Noodle was a clear broth type with barely any seasoning showcasing the delicate and fine texture of the noodle itself. While I could choose the noodle shop, ordering the noodles was like a multiple choice question in an Alien languege, hence at one stall while trying to order noodles I got Suzhou Dumplings instead.

Suzhou Noodles 

Suzhou Noodle's Shop 

Suzhou Dumpling's

As a first time tourist to Suzhou, I still had some responsible tourist things to do. Hence a visit to the Humble Administrator’s Garden was in the list. Ticket entrance was RMB 70 off season. It was November after all and most of the greenary had already shed preparing for winter. Still it was an impresive garden mixed with a little history which was quite enjoyable.

Humble Administrator's Garden - Suzhou

Humble Administrator's Garden - Suzhou

Bonsai Plant Collection - Humble Administrator's Garden - Suzhou

Linking close with the Humble Administrator’s Garden was the Suzhou Museum. While free to enter unfortunately the quota was full and there was no more tickets for the next whole week. From what I could see, the tour groups had filled up the quota quickly being a free stop. I took a walk to Pingjiang River after the Gardens and it kept me occupied most of the days in Suzhou.

It was interesting to see all the nooks and little old building architecture with the main canal as a focus and of course then there was the shops selling all kinds of touristy trinkets and food. But lastly there was the ‘make up’ parlours which dolls up the tourist for them to dress up like ancient times and go around taking pictures. Half the fun is watching the girls and their photographer do their thing.

Pingjiang River Walk - Suzhou

Pingjiang River - Suzhou

Pingjiang River Walk - Suzhou

Make Up Parlour for Tourist 

Tourist Favourite Activity in China - Dress up + Photography 

I was really tired of walking around Suzhou. The place has that effect on you for each step brings new scenic spots and new stalls to observe and before I knew it, I had walk from 10am all the way to 8pm without much stops. It was just one sight after another. My feet was really aching by the end of the day.

Traveled on: November 2023

Unlocking Skills While Exploring Suzhou

Travelling day! Today is the first time I had to travel between cities in China but instead of the long distance bullet train or busses I’ll be using only the metro line. From Shanghai there was Line 11 metro which goes all the way west, last stop Houqiao Station and at that same station one could transit to Suzhou metro Line 11. So the two cities metro network actually meet up touching like fingers at the edge.

The ride was interesting if one had the time I suppose. The metro goes overhead hence one gets to see the outer city landscape of Shanghai which tourist usually wont have any view off. The people travelling the line was also different from those within downtown Shanghai. More solemn, knowing their journey home is a long one.

Xuanmiao Temple - Suzhou

I stayed at MeetU International Hostel which was slightly dificulty to find as they were really really new. It was actually one of the best hostel I have ever stayed, top grade high end hostel. I was lucky in a sense as they just newly listed on booking.com with barely two reviews hence I got it for cheap at RMB 20 per night. Their usual price was around RMB 70. The hostel owner and staff helped me translate a few things I was unsure of in the ALIPAY app and gave me all the recommended things to do in Suzhou.

Walking all around Shanghai was really brutalizing my feet hence the motivation to get a bycycle to explore cities in China was really priority one. With some new info from the hostel I set out to unlock a bike. The first bike some random orrange colour one cant seam to work and I got frustrated and gave up deciding to walk to the night attraction area called Shantang St. Halfway walking and I cooldown my head and tried again looking for the more common blue bikes. Even used the inapp mini programe of ALIPAY to figure out how to find the bikes. Turns out there was a bike locater as well built in. Stupid me.

Hello Bike in China 

So the bikes I could use were only the blue ones under the brand HELLO which has a tie-in with ALIPAY. A few more tinkering with the app and I finally manage to unlocked the bike. When I say tinkering, well its cause the ALIPAY app is mainly in chinese. Although they have an in app translation tie in with google translate, it’s still not perfect so I keep doing screenshot and then using google lense to translate to get a better translation. Make sense ? Anyway somehow I managed it and now I could bike around China.

Cycling around Suzhou City 

I cycle to the attraction vanue and realized I could not just park the bike anywhere, checking the app again showed me the designated parking area. Not too bad I guess and parked the bike and manage to lock the bike clocking out without much issue. I wondered how much it was going to cost but so far there was no notification.

Shantang St

I had no idea about the night attraction at Shantang St. If I did not randomly ask the hostel owner of whats nice to explore in Suzhou, this would be a definate missed out. Back home, I would call it a night market, or rather a tourist night market, China style. Tourist night market in China are usually set in historical or scenic old towns that makes beautiful picturesque yet filled with food outlet, suviniours and many expensive local produce.

Shantang St - Suzhou

Spice Shop at Shantang St - Suzhou

Sweet shop at Shantang St - Suzhou

Shantang main Canal - Suzhou

Shantang St main Canal - Suzhou

Underpass Mural - Shantang St 

The main cannal was really beautiful and vibrantly lighted up but just a turn down one parelel street and the old city become eeriely quiet and dark with most of the houses unoccupied. It was really a contrast that I could not explain.

After visiting Shantang St, I thought of biking back to the hostel. When I opened back the bike miniapp, there was a notification of RMB 1.5 pending to be paid. I tried to pay it ... multiple times but apparently the linked international credit card had a minimum payment requirement of RMB 0.1. 

A little turn at Shantang St - Locals selling BBQ Skewers 

A little turn at Shantang St - Quiet Dark alleys in stark contrast from the brightly lighted up main street

A little turn at Shantang St - Locals selling street food

A little turn at Shantang St - Locals selling steam crabs 

The app stupidly gave me a discount for first time use of RMB1.49 so I only had to pay RMB 0.01 which was not possible. Trying to get rid of the discount was also perplexing yet somehow and I dont even know how I did it, closed and open again many times and viola, pay RMB1.5 and now I was allowed to grab a new ride.

After all that hard work tinkering with the miniapp to pay for the bike, I now realized while I could get the bike, there was a no parking zone where my hostel is. The hostel was in downtown Suzhou within the moat, and the whole downtown was no parking for HELLO bikes. I guess that answers a question of why I could not see any blue bikes near the hostels but there was plenty of those orrange ones. Business monopoly at it finest.

Traveled on: Nov 2023

Day Trip from Shanghai to Qipao Ancient Town and Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

With the power of wikitravel my trusted guide, I decided to take on the daytrip to Qipao Ancient Town and Zhujiajiao Ancient Town which was way far out of Shanghai downtown. It was a long ride to Qipao Ancient Town via the Shanghai Metro and in a sense the ride felt like I was now part of the local daily commute.

Just to have an Idea, you can see from the cut out map below. Shanghai downtown and greater area encompas the big purple circle. Just getting around the circle area would require the metro and bus or even a taxi and easily takes anything from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. Qipao was further to the west and Zhujiajiao even more. Its a proper daytrip alright with transportation to and fro Shanghai taking up a good portion of the time.

Qibao & Zhujiajiao Ancient Town from Shanghai Downtown

Qipao Ancient Town was a quint little go back in time nostalgia type of tourist trap. It felt touristy for it was I was still climatizing to what is the norm in China. Thinking back, this was rather mellow with the tourist comprising of locals with barely any international tourist. The place had little signs of daily life which makes it really authentic in China instead of those artificial built up traps. One just somehow need to make a wrong turn out of the well marked tourist path.

Qipao Ancient Town Entrance 

Qipao Ancient Town - Souvenir & Trinkets Shop 

Qipao Ancient Town - Tourist Street

I find Qipao more interesting than Yuyuan Old Town in Shanghai which feels totally destroyed of life. In Yuyuan, the buildings are old, the architecture are genuine but the people felt gone. Qipao felt more authentic but craftily designed to funnel the mainstream tourist crowd through the little shops for some suvinours.

A Turn off the Tourist Street in Qipao Ancient Town

Small Guide Map of Qipao Ancient Town

A Little Turn away from the Tourist Street, Quiet pace of local life - Qipao Ancient Town

Qipao Ancient Town

After Qipao, I made my way to Zhujiajiao Ancient Town. AMAP really help me this round in navigating the local way and instead of backtracking the metro line to downtown Shanghai to change to the Zhujiajiao line, I took the metro to Dongjing Station. From there, somehow find the 1 hour bus shuttle to Zhujiajiao and this time I had to asked since the bus had no number but pure written wordings.

The fringe of Zhujiajiao Ancient Town 

Zhujiajiao was even quieter than Qipao, but maybe it was because I was there late evening. This place felt similar to Qipao. Tourist footpath with lots of instagramable things to see and buy, side path to get lost and explore the mundane life of the locals still living in the old building just minding their own stuff watching TV. I was there during the sunset hour and it was a beautiful view.

Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

Zhujiajiao Ancient Town - Tourist Street at 5pm, almost void of people

Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

Sunset at Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

Traveled on: Nov 2023

Camoflauge as a Local Tourist in Shanghai

Trying to master the art of sleeping while seated with one eye closed at Shanghai Pudong Airport was not easy. One arm on the bag and a comfy seat in a dark corner of the airport at 3am in the morning where all my excitement after flying became a sleep deprive grumpy mindset. By 7am in the morning, the Meglev opened and I could finally head into the city proper.

The Shanghai Meglev which is a high speed train running on levitation technology base on magnets to make the whole train floats while moving forward. The ride was amazing espescially when the train does tight curve at 300km/hr where even sitting inside one can fill the curverture tilt to compensate the g-forces. As fun and cheap a thrill the Meglev was only a short 10 minute ride.

Meglev Pudong Airport Station

First Train in the Morning - Meglev Pudong Airport Shanghai

Naturally I was in Shanghai downtown way too early in the morning. Took the long way and decided to walk all the way to the hostel instead of taking the metro a few more stops. I guess I underestimated the map. A few stops is a really really far away but in a way I stumble upon the local Shanghai day to day life of wet markets and local routine.

Morning Walk just slightly outside Downtown Shanghai

Shanghai would be expensive most warn me but like KL, just a turn away and the local still need to live so its reasonably priced if one knows the layout. First bowl of noodles cost about RMB 25 (SGD 5) and so forth. Drop my bags off at the Hostel and I had 6 hours to burn before check in.

Naturally I hit the town for a walk while sleep deprived. Shanghai was really easy. Most places of interest is on google maps and hostels dont really give much more advantage. People in hostel are reserved mostly with many mainland locals here in Shanghai long term for temp work.

Locals Dance Practice at People's Park - Shanghai

Locals Dance Practice at Peoples Park - Shanghai

The Marriage Market at People's Park - Shanghai

Saw the famous Shanghai bund, then round back again the next day to see it at night, checked out People’s park and stumble upon the marriage market and while I was very courious, and got scolded for taking a picture up close. 

But then, how was I to know what the writing was about without using google len’s to translate. Later after some research on the web, I finally understand the notority of the place. Old folks writing up their kids biodata trying to find a match for marriage. In this day and age especially in downtown Shanghai it was definately a interesting sight and culture to witness.

Nanjing Pedestrian Street - Shanghai

Nanjing Pedestrian Street - Shanghai

The Shanghai Museum was closed unfortunately but the Shanghai History Museum which is a old historic Race Course building was open. Their collection was quite small and revolves around the people of Shanghai’s history and cultural development. In a way it was interesting yet not captivating even for someone like me that is of chinese heritage.

I spend most of my time in Shanghai just wandering around the streets getting lost. Google map and some other blogs on general things to do in Shanghai was my main source of information of what to explore. Not the best opening experience to a travel but Shanghai while dazzling can be lonely. 

I hit the Yuyuan Old town, Jade Buddha Temple, Jing’an Temple and Nanjing Pedestrian Street. I didin think too much about it and just thought to have a walk. I kept trying to find a land marker for the G318 which is the famous route from Shanghai to Tibet but no obvious tourist marker was found.

Yuyuan Old Town - Shanghai 

Jade Buddha Temple - Shanghai 

At one point I started hopping onto public busses without knowing where the bus will take me. Drop in 2 Yuan and no question was asked where I was going. Once I feel there was an interesting street to explore, I would just hop off and take a walk and repeat again by hopping onto another bus. Eventualy I ended up much in the outer fringe of downtown but was not that hard to hop back to the metro network.

Shanghai supprisingly did not cost me a bomb in term of expenditure. I avoided the observation deck or any attraction that require a ticket and just wandered around using all the local transport including the ferry to cross the bund which cost only RMB2. 

Local Ferry across the Bund - Shanghai

View of Shanghai from the Ferry Crossing

Random Bus, Random Street - Shanghai

Random Bus brought me to this eating place in Shanghai

There was a expensive tourist cruise option but I managed to find the public ferry. There was absolutely no challage at all to explore Shanghai, communication with people was also almost non-existance. For a city of 23 million people, it can be lonely visiting alone.

Traveled on: Nov 2023