Tour of Suzhou

We will be in Shanghai late April with a fee day and are considering touring Suzhou. Any recommendations on how to do this with someone reputable? Thanks

Tour of Suzhou

Possible to DIY, actually.

What are your sightseeing interests and preferences? Suzhou is famous for Chinese classical gardens but I don%26#39;t recommend visiting anymore than two otherwise most probably you%26#39;ll be ';gardened-out';. Perhaps not the case if you%26#39;re a botanist, horticulturalist or gardener though.

You might want to email me at ellyse99@yahoo.com for more suggestions -- put ';TripAdvisor'; and your own username (eg abirder) in the subject line please.

Tour of Suzhou

One Garden + Hu Qiu Mountain

Hopefully you would not see too many tourists there which would guarantee ruin your visit for any garden.

You can choose Liu Yuan (鐣欏洯) Garden which is the most famous one (used to be the home for the famous Christian ';peaceful kingdom'; army marshal Li XiuChen%26#39;s home when he occupied the area around 1860s). Anther not that famous one is ';Wang Shi Yuan';, the suzhou garden you can see at Metropolitan Art museum is a copy of that one.

Hu Qiu Mountain and its Leaning Tower is unique.

My family and I recently took a 1-day tour of Suzhou via Shanghai with a tour company called DTS (Destination Travel International - Shanghai Branch). They were recommended by our hotel as an agency geared toward international visitors. The young tour guide assigned to us was professional, enthusiastic, considerate and very likable. We were very impressed. The driver was also excellent, treating us to smooth and uneventful rides (not to be taken for granted in China). As we purchased a private tour for 5, we were sent a van instead of a bus. The Mercedes was new, clean, and equipped with working seatbelts. We were all very happy with our Suzhou experience.

I think if you are traveling with young kids or elderlies or in a group larger than 4, you should definitely consider booking a tour instead of DIY. From what I saw, the Suzhou tourist area is not easy to navigate. The roads are unpaved and dusty, full of rocks and holes, and not particularly well-marked.

Tiger Hill is also one of my favourites but not usually on my selection for a daytrip as it takes a longer time to explore and most daytrippers would rather see more sights and spend less time in each.

My personal favourites for gardens are Master-of-Nets Garden (Wang Shi Yuan 缃戝笀鍥?as above) and Lion Grove (Shi Zi Lin 鐙瓙鏋?.

';The roads are unpaved and dusty, full of rocks and holes, and not particularly well-marked.';

Unpaved? Tarred roads are the norm for touristy areas (and most of the rest) in Suzhou.

Dusty is correct though. It%26#39;ll be mucky when it rains.

';Full of rocks and holes'; -- I think Suzhou is doing a lot of road construction at the moment, that might be the reason.

Not particularly well-marked? You%26#39;re weren%26#39;t looking in Chinese. :P