Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tongli
Of all the canal towns,
TONGLI
(¥60), around eighty kilometres from
Shanghai, has the best sights, and with more than forty humpback bridges (some
more than a thouand years old) and fifteen canals it offers plenty of photo ops.
The town's highlight is the UNESCO-listed
Tu isi Garden
(daily 8am-6pm;
¥20), built by disillusioned retired official Ren Lansheng in 1886 as a place to
retreat and meditate - though you'll have to come in the early morning, before
the tour groups arrive, to appreciate the peacefulness of the place. With its
harmonious arrangements of rockeries, pavilions and bridges, zigzagging over
carp-filled ponds, it is comparable to anything in Suzhou. The nearby
Sex
Museum
(daily 8am-5.30pm; ¥20), housed in a former girls' school, is a
branch of the museum in Pudong (see p.89), with similar exhibits - figurines
of Tang dynasty prostitutes, special coins for use in brothels, and a wide range
of occasionally eye-watering dildos.
There is no sightseeing bus from Shanghai to Tongli; the easiest way to get
here is by bus or cab from Suzhou (see below), only twenty kilometres away.
Suzhou
SUZHOU
, about ninety kilometres west of Shanghai, is famous for its gardens,
beautiful women and silk. The city is said to have been founded in 600 BC by
He Lu, semi-mythical ruler of the Kingdom of Wu , a s his capital, but it was the
arrival of the
Grand Canal
more than a thousand years later that marked the
beginning of its prosperity as a centre for the production of wood block and
the weaving of silk. In the late thirteenth century, Marco Polo reported “six
thousand bridges, clever merchants, cunning men of all crafts, very wise men
called Sages and great natural physicians”. These were the people responsible for
carving out the intricate
gardens
that are now Suzhou's primary attractions.
Arrival, information and orientation
From Shanghai Railway Station, fast double-decker
trains
make the fifty-
minute run to Suzhou every morning from 6 till 11am; after this time, they are
slower, taking one hour thirty minutes.
Buses
to Suzhou leave every half-hour
from Shanghai Hengfeng Station, Xujiazui station and from outside the train
station, taking almost two hours.
From the
train station
, you can get into town on buses #1 and #20. Directly
across the street from the train station exit is a small
tourist office.
and jetty
where you can sign up for
boa
r
tours
around Suzhou (¥60 for a ride around
the city moat) and to Tongli (see above; trip leaves 8am; ¥150).
Minibus tours
of the city, on which you get ferried to all the sights (without commentary)
depart from the train station square at 7.30am, returning at 4.30pm; they cost
¥15 exclusive of admission charges and can be booked on the day or in advance
at the tourist office. City tours can also be arranged by CITS, next to the
Lexiang Hotel
on Dajing Lu (
0512/65155207).
Suzhou has two main
bus stations
. The North Bus Station, which has half-
hourly connections with Shanghai, is directly to the east of the train station. The
South Bus Station, which sees arrivals from points south including Hangzhou
and Zhouzhuang, is on Nanyuan Nan Lu just south of Nanhuan Dong Lu. Just
T
153
