Tiger Tower

Once I made it past the throngs of hucksters, vendors and tour guides,
I found this place to be remarkably serene. There were hundreds of
paintable places in this park. Waterfalls, neat bridges, bamboo
forests, fragrant tea bushes, and beautifully designed bonsai trees
were everywhere. The climb up to the tower is a workout, but with
beautiful surprises all the way. Tiger Tower is closed to climbing,
but with it's distinctive lean, I don't think you'd want to. There was
plenty to keep me entertained on the ground.

I heard a lot of "hello" today, but I don't recall hearing any other
English all day. My "ni hao" response always gets a smile. My entire
Mandarin vocabulary is up to about 15 words now. It's a tough language
to learn!

The rest of Suzhou did not compare to Tiger Tower park. Suzhou is a
"small city", but I'll bet the population is in the millions. It was
chaotic with some charm. The streets were filled with bicycles,
motorcycles and cool little bicycle taxis. Not many cars at all.