Prologue - The January Trip

I'd been to Suzhou a couple of times in 2009 and 2010. Both trips were fly-in-fly-out with no time to see much of the city. In fact, the hotel where we stayed was in the heart of the Industrial part of the Industrial park. You could walk to work at the plant site, but there was nothing else much within waking distance.

Beginning January 11, I made a two week visit to do a little prep work on the both business side and on the personal side. On the week-end, I spent a full day looking at apartments and then a couple more evenings the following week. Looked at about 15 or so and finally selected one (and after much texting and exchange of photos with Theresa).

Apartment hunting was my first chance to venture outside of my normal habitat within the Industrial Park. It seems there actually is a city there...with places where people live and shop and play. I had an extra free day on the week-end and took a walk over to the old city of Suzhou. It was a long walk, but I finally made it to the Humble Administrator's Garden.

Within China, Suzhou is known for historic, traditional gardens. The old city is splattered with them. Most of the native Chinese I've met, from places other than Suzhou, all have a story about visiting the gardens on a family vacation when they were children. Even on a cold day in January it was full of people.

The traditional Chinese garden was/is intended to immerse a person in nature so as to promoste the contemplation of life, beauty, and inner self. (Ok...I made that up, but I think it's pretty close to being true.) Each of the Suzhou gardens has it's own history and style. The Humble Administrator's Garden is the largest of them. Those who appreciate the finer points may rank one of the others ahead. But for a tourist, if you're going to see only one garden then this is the one.