Suzhou, half an hour by train from Shanghai is a wonderful city. It's high point was !000 years ago in the Tang dynasty. Now there is as modern a city as you could want, pedestrianised, and with all the international brand shops, a nationally recognised restaurant area, and lots of new gated communities being built. But whereas when we were in Beijing in 2007 they were busily demolishing the Hutongs, or traditional working class living areas, in Suzhou they have conserved them. As the old town was built round canals this has created a very attractive area drawing in tens of thousands of tourists, overwhelmingly from China. It is easy to see why it was called Heaven on Earth in medieval times. It is also home to a dozen or so private gardens first made in medieval times and tours of them and boat tours on the town moat from where you can see the highest Pagoda south of the Yangste are popular. We stayed in the Piajiang Historical District, on a pedestrian canal which has been restored. There are proud signs on many of the buildings, in both chinese and english, describing the engineering works undertaken in the restoration. They now house a range of cafes and tourist oriented shops and the area comes alive in the evenings and at the weekend when impromptu stalls set up selling fast food and souvenirs. Even the former rubbish dump has been converted into a smart, and very good, restaurant..
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