We took a day trip to Suzhou which was worth the 2 1/2 hour drive each way. It’s a very pretty little town (only 6 million) with canals and old streets which we rickshawed around in. And we visited 2 ancient, private gardens which were magical and amazing and I adored them. The other magical aspect of that day was that it was 42 degrees. And a ‘street temperature’ of 50-51 degrees. I’m not sure what that means but any surface you touch will burn and it takes concentration to breathe. Any breeze feels like standing in front of a hair dryer. It becomes quite surreal. The kids managed it quite well – I kept pouring water over their heads.
And we ate gorgeous food. Fresh water fish. Jack ate the whole fish’s head which was a little unexpected. He just left a tiny pile of bones.