With our bellies full we set out for the sights. Suzhou is known for its gardens and we headed towards what is supposed to be the most beautiful one. Chinese gardens are mostly rock and water accented by sensual foliage. In the winter you can forget the foliage and gaze at the rocks and water. It was pretty cool looking rocks and water, but nothing that made me gasp in astonishment.

We asked ourselves, “if this is the prettiest garden in Suzhou, how disappointing are the ugly ones going to be?” We decided to not find out and headed towards the Twin Pagodas. They were also a bit disappointing if only because they weren’t open to the public and were surrounded by a large touristy shopping district. There’s nothing like thousands of neon lights offering up piles of worthless crap to destroy the serenity of a thousand year old piece of history.

With that we called it a night.

The next day we headed out to Tiger Hill. This is an ancient mound built by the towns forefathers. As we climbed the hill we visited numerous very old ceremonial buildings all of which was very beautiful and interesting.

At the top is a seven story high leaning pagoda that is the beacon of all of Suzhou. It towered above us as we climbed the hill and astonished me as I finally reached the summit and gazed upon the building. Unfortunately the pagoda itself was closed while we were there so that the workers could get some lunch. Yet it was still a lovely thing to see.

As we walked back down the hill I realized that while Suzhou had contained a number of disappointments, I was not leaving unhappy. We then gathered our stuff, and boarded the long bus home. The bus movie was First Blood, but had been dubbed and subtitled in Chinese. I made myself comfortable in the knowledge that one can enjoy Rambo thoroughly even when one cannot actually understand what he’s saying.