Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Suzhou/Wuxi Trip 2016 - Day 2 - Shantang Jie, Suzhou Part 1 - Market Place

Day 2, morning woke up to a heavy rain. It was the raining season in China. We were in Suzhou in June and there was a tornado in Jiangsu Province but luckily not in Suzhou/Wuxi, sad to say quite heavy loss of life and injuries. (Saw the daily news in China about the Tornado). Read more about the Tornado from source. Our Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs send messages to us warning us about the Tornado and to take care and seek help from the embassy if needed. So it is important to register with the ministry whenever we travel.

Rainy Season applies to different parts of China at different times over the course of the spring and summer. If you will be in China between April and July and will be traveling around the country, then it is highly likely that you will hit rainy season in some part of China. Rainy season starts in the south and moves north as the months go by. South China will be rainier earlier in the spring from April-May. The plum rains,梅雨 meiyu, or “may yoo” in Mandarin, nicknamed for the season when the fruit ripens, hit eastern China in May-June. The rains move north from June-July. Read more from source.

Fortunately, the rain did stop and we went out a little late. From our hotel we walked about 10 minutes to the metro station (Leqiao Station) Exit 6.

It was easy to purchase the metro ticket from the vending machine, they have English instructions. Only 2 yuan to reach our destination in Shantang Jie. We need to change from Line 1 to Line 2 at Guangjinan Lu Station and then to Shantang Jie Station.

To reach the popular Shantang Jie, we should exit at EXIT 3 but for some reason, EXIT 3 was closed so we went out via EXIT 1 and came a cross a market. From the market, there's an underpass to walk over to the other side of Shantang Jie.

Shantang Jie is a very popular ancient street filled with ancient buildings and popular with tourist.

The canal looked so beautiful which looked as it the buildings were immersed in flood.

We went for a short walk to the market, would be a nice walk if it wasn't raining and the road were not so wet.

Interesting scene of the market, prices were very low, so do shop like the locals, dont buy from supermarkets or malls in China.

The raining season is the season of plum, peaches, etc. Saw these peaches selling very cheaply.

Live chickens, ducks, birds for sale.

Hahaha cooked and uncooked ducks sold side by side. In Singapore, the stall holder were be fined for such acts. The uncooked ducks would contaiminated the cooked duck.

After the market walk, we walked over to the other side of Shantang Jie via the underpass. It was still raining and we were holding umbrellas, really very inconvenient.

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