Diary of a Traveling Foodie: Day Trip to Suzhou

Suzhou is known as the Venice of the East, famous for its network of interlocking canals whose waters feed the series of renowned classical gardens that are Suzhou's pride and glory.

My maternal grandparents call Suzhou home. Last April, my grandfather passed away and we decided to spend a day to visit his final resting spot and pay our respects.

Suzhou is about 60 miles away from Shanghai. With a thriving network of high speed rail connecting Shanghai and Nanjing, what use to take 2hrs can now be completed in 40min by CRH Trains. These trains are made in China but are exact replicas of the Japanese Nozomi Shinkansen Trains. Leave it to the Chinese to copy foreign technology...

Interesting menu item at KFC...

Went to the flower market to buy some flowers for gramps

Artisitic Shot

Shanghai Station

Interesting police cart in front of the station

Shanghai Station, The white trains are the CRH Trains and the red ones are old school trains

The train traveling at its max speed of 332 km/hr

Like I said, exact replicas of the Shinkansen

Suzhou Station

My Gramp's Cemetery...very scenic

Beautiful Lily Creek

My Grandfather Dawen Li. RIP

My Great Grand Parents are buried right next to my grand father

My 100 year old Great Grandmother...Amazing lady, her mind is still clear as day and still walks around on her own!

Ate lunch at a Suzhou culinary establishment serving traditional Suzhou food in an old school setting.

Like I said...very old school

Awesome Fish

Best Xia Ren I've ever had!

The oil is still boiling on this eel dish. Yum!

After lunch, we were welcomed by this predicament...

Our original plan was to visit The Lion Grove Garden, but it was raining so hard my parents decided to stay back with my grand mother. So my brother and I ran through the thundering rain to the Lion Grove Garden next door.