Suzhou Expat - The expatriate portal in China

To get to Suzhou, take a Cebu Pacific flight to Shanghai from Manila every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 8:20 p.m., with turnaround flights from Shanghai every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 12:30 a.m. From Shanghai’s Pudong airport, there are buses that travel directly to Suzhou, costing around 35 yuan.)

The highway that stretched before us was kind of intimidating.

Massive, as anything else in China is, it accommodates 10 lanes on both sides and, at that time of the day, is filled bumper to bumper with a thousand cars.

But that’s not what is making us squirm in our seats. It’s the spectre of bathroom stops we would have to make on our way to Suzhou, about 100 kilometers from Shanghai.

“There are very few Western bathrooms outside the city, so I’m afraid you’ll have to squat,” says Winnie, our tour guide, with a laugh.

Not exactly cut and dried

Suzhou, located about 100 kilometers away from Shanghai on the lower reaches of the Yangtze river, is a 2,500-year-old city that dates back to the Shang dynasty. Known for its beautiful stone bridges, long winding canals, and exquisitely designed gardens, it is ranked fifth in terms of per capita income.

“Some people have called Suzhou the Venice of the Orient, because of its canals and because both sides of the canal are lined with houses just like in Venice,” says Winnie, our guide.

She brought us to one of the city’s beautiful gardens called the Humble Administrator’s garden, which is included in Unesco’s World Heritage List.

From there we boarded a pair of boats that would ferry us around the Taihu river and, at the same time, give us an unhurried, closer glimpse into the life of its residents.

“People around here, they retire early so they can enjoy their lives while still young. This is why you see a lot of old men fishing along the embankments,” says Winnie.

The city, we’re told, is a favorite destination of honeymooners and it’s not hard to see why. It’s not hard to imagine oneself just lounging around in a chair and watch the river boats float by (which is exactly what most of the residents were doing).

“See those clothes hanging outside the windows?” Winnie said, pointing to several lines of laundry flapping in the breeze.

“People around here can afford to buy washing machines or dryers and dry their clothes inside,” she continued. “but they’ve gotten so used to the smell of sun-dried laundry that they never bother to dry their clothes inside.”

Famous son

The city also houses one of the last works of Ieoh Ming Pei, more popularly known as I.M. Pei—the Suzhou Museum.

Pei, the son of a prominent Suzhou banker, paid tribute to his hometown by designing the new museum, a curious mix of old and new architectural styles.

“It took them four years to build this museum and it is said that I.M. Pei spent every available moment he had flying back here to personally supervise its construction,” says Winnie.

Visitors to the museum almost invariably stop at the arresting sight of the three-dimensional rendering in stone and concrete of a mountain range rising above a man-made lake stocked with koi and other decorous fish.

Inside the museum, pristine lines and simple details carry the famous architect’s signature stamp, giving the impression of symmetry. According to the museum’s literature, more than 15,000 works of Chinese art—ancient paintings, calligraphy, ceramics, crafts, relics, books and documents, etc.— are scattered across 2,200 square meters of space.

But what drew a collective sigh of relief from our group were the modern, Western-style bathrooms inside the museum.

After about a 30-minute tour, which included a protracted bathroom break, we all headed out to the entrance, where a line of shops that sell everything from matchbooks to bladed weapons caught our attention—but we held off from splurging.

After spending about half the day enjoying the serenity of the city, we left Suzhou.