How about Suzhou Impression City? Is it worth visiting?

I have been wandering around Suzhou for half a year. I would like to briefly introduce some of my impressions of Suzhou. Everyone is welcome to discuss:

(1) First introduction to Suzhou

When I first arrived in Suzhou, I had a particularly good impression of the old town. It was a typical water town and very life-like. Wandering in alleys like Pingjiang Road, listening to the Suzhou Pingtan on the radio, I feel like I am forgetting time. There are many cafes and teahouses in the alleys, where many foreigners and travelers are active, presumably intoxicated by the charm of the "Venice of the East". Of course you have to visit a garden in Suzhou, and the Humble Administrator's Garden is the most typical representative. Changing scenery as you move around is the biggest impression you have on Suzhou gardens. There are many small specialty shops in the small streets near the Humble Administrator's Garden. What impressed me most and what I like most are the paintings made of embroidery and reeds. The larger ones are quite expensive, but the most interesting one is the "love as a match" "Shang Cigarettes" is a small shop that is full of creativity and fits the mood of young people. A set of matches costs 15 yuan, and there are many armbands and personalized quotes. You will definitely be reluctant to use such matches after buying them. They are used for decoration or simply as art collections.

Xuanmiao Temple is also a major place in Suzhou City, not only because there is a Taoist temple with a lot of history, not only because it is a pedestrian street with very prosperous business, and not only because there are endless things to see here. beauty, but because of the famous snacks here (along with Shanghai City God Temple, Nanjing Confucius Temple, and Changsha Fire Palace, they are also known as the four major snacks in China).

The moat scenery in Suzhou City at night is also very beautiful. You can take a cruise and take a tour...

However, if you bid farewell to the old city and come to the park or high-tech zone, before The feeling of Suzhou is gone. This marks the area where Suzhou has developed and alienated the style of the entire Suzhou city into nondescript. This is a deep sense of repetition, which is no different from the many cities I have visited before. The most representative one is the kind of building with a pigeon cage at the bottom and a "Chinese style" corner roof on the top. This "combination of Chinese and Western" architectural style, which originated in Guangdong with the reform and opening up, made me feel like a thousand cities again!

(2) Lost in Suzhou

Lost in Suzhou. After staying in Suzhou for almost half a month, the excitement and passion at the beginning gradually became dull, so every time I go to a place, I have to stay for a while before I can experience the city more deeply. Suzhou now is a contradictory city in my mind. Just like my state of mind at the moment, I want to leave but can't move. It seems that all cities in China now look the same, with crazy construction going on against time everywhere. Could it be that the soul of the "Great Leap Forward" has been revived? Newly built overpasses, large trucks coming and going, unfinished high-rise buildings, dusty roads, exposed reinforced concrete, bungalows about to be demolished, newly planted small trees, workers in work sheds late at night... Could it be that these once had their own personalities? Will all cities and towns gradually assimilate into multiples? Then I seemed to have lost my goal and didn’t know how to go on. Wuxi? Yangzhou? Nanjing? ...The weather is quite depressing now. The sun is so intense during the day that I don’t want to go out much, and the sweltering heat makes me a little exhausted. The book market in Suzhou is difficult to find. Except for a few large Xinhua Bookstores, it is difficult to find specialty bookstores. I finally found a small bookstore near Soochow University and bought two magazines dedicated to traveling to the West. I was going to sit in the house and read through it, settle down, and fill in the words that had been empty in my notebook for several days. I met a very close friend in Suzhou. He was a very unique person with a devilish figure. It felt like his thighs were only as thick as my arms. My roommate called him "A Bao", haha. Abao has been quite bored recently. He is only in his early 20s and always says "boring", "boring" and "it doesn't matter". He just became a supervisor in an advertising company and chose to resign. He took a break and lost the rhythm of his life. I am very uncomfortable with it and am planning to leave Suzhou for Shanghai or return to Guangdong... Life is full of dislocations. Perhaps the essence of life is mostly boring. Who knows before living it?

The western part of Suzhou is not very familiar. There is the High-tech Zone and the Tiger Hill Scenic Area, and further west is Taihu Lake. I heard from Huobao that in addition to the high-tech industry, there is also a "special" industry there, which is in Mudu, where there are many hotels. Mudu and Shiquan Street in the old city are equally famous "red light districts" in Suzhou. I don’t know Mudu, but I have walked through Shiquan Street a few times. During the day, it is a typical small street with Jiangnan characteristics. There are many specialty stores, clothing, food, and leisure are very developed, especially behind the row of small shops on the street. A small river passes through it, and on the other side of the river are cafes and bars converted from antique houses, which are indeed exquisite. Tour guides can often be seen walking the streets with tour groups from all over the world. During the day, Shiquan Street seems to be in a hazy state, with many entertainment and leisure places closed. But at night, the place becomes extremely active, and the psychedelic lights give off an indescribable atmosphere. Ambiguous, many bored singles and tourists who come here gather here, all looking forward to something, which is quite similar to Lijiang...

The current landscape of Suzhou Park is similar to Dongguan It's almost the same. There are many factories, but the industries are different. The manufacturing and processing industries are mostly here. A typical living community is Xujiabang. It's bustling every night and lasts until early morning the next day. The nightlife here is no less than that of Guangdong.

Xujiabang community is basically populated by migrant workers. People come and go 24 hours a day, and the night market is quite popular. In some aspects, it feels a bit like Fallen Street. The difference is that the sanitary conditions are relatively better than that of Fallen Street. This is related to the management of Suzhou, because Suzhou is creating a civilized city, and the consumer groups here are all working class. I can imagine that with the deepening of urban construction, such areas will disappear sooner or later, and they will be replaced by new communities. As photographer Yang Fei said, low-income people also have the right to be happy, so take advantage of now and seize the time to have fun... (P.S.: The ratio of men to women in this area is very unbalanced. There are obviously more women than men. Compared with Guangdong, The factory area is almost the same.)

(3) Suzhou Meimei Map

Schools across the country have started, and I feel that the living environment around me has suddenly become lively. For example, the night market in Xiangmen Houzhuang, near the student apartment of Soochow University, is becoming more and more popular. If the TV station had not exposed the situation of the street stalls in Houzhuang a few days ago, it might have become even more popular. And the number of handsome guys and beauties has doubled, creating a beautiful landscape. This place is a good choice for late-night snacks and online karaoke. It has a bit of a fallen street feel, but the environment is much better than that of a fallen street. The prime location here is on Moye Road, which is by the moat. The scenery is naturally beautiful, especially when the lights are turned on at night, the outlines of the antique buildings are clearly visible. However, I still like to go to the moat in the evening to watch those old men fishing. The setting sun shines on the river and the breeze blows, and I have the urge to jump into the river again... Su University has been closed since May 1, 2008. It is open to the public. I often borrowed my student ID card from my friends at Soochow University to sneak in. The main building is worth a visit. There are many Jiangnan-style buildings that are delicate and delicate. China's first film TV series "Our Youth Has Nowhere to Place" had many locations at Suzhou University.

At the same time, Xujiabang is also very lively. Late at night, the night market under the viaduct is also very popular. However, the food in the night market here does not taste very good, only the barbecue is okay. There is a small commodity market here, which is often overcrowded during the day, and the boss who sells the goods is also very cool. The prices are higher than those of Yao Ming, and he looks like a good girl will not worry about getting married. After all, there are many people here, and the sales are still small. Necessities of life. Upstairs of the small commodity market is a large Internet cafe, which is always full late at night. A very important reason is: from 1 o'clock at night to 8 o'clock in the morning, the Internet fee is 1 yuan/hour. In addition, because this area is close to the park, the community is full of young migrant workers, so this Internet cafe has become almost all their spare time and entertainment. This Internet cafe has a bar-sharing function, that is, you can use QQ to chat with people who are surfing the Internet in this Internet cafe, so it is very convenient for lonely and bored people, and it is also very convenient for pranks to happen.

I rarely go shopping on Guanqian Street at night for unknown reasons. Occasionally I go there to take a quick look, but it is definitely a higher-end place than Houzhuang and Xujiabang (at least in terms of consumption). There are specialty stores of various brands, time-honored snacks, and some luxury stores. After leaving the pedestrian street, there are many bars along the river. A band can make the people inside very happy with just a casual performance. Many people inside are actually not interested in drinking. They are trying to get drunk. Some people who meet by chance have a more direct purpose, just to engage in 419.

Similar to Xujiabang is the Wuzhong Mall area, which is centered on the small commodity market and is a relatively prosperous commercial street. In addition, the Wuzhong Bus Station is nearby, and it is an area with a large floating population. area. I am not familiar with this area and have only walked through it once under the guidance of a friend. Outside this large business district, there are basically factories. Therefore, it is conceivable that the composition of the people nearby is quite similar to that of Xujiabang. They are all migrant workers, which is very complicated. Therefore, "cuties" appear frequently. It’s also taken for granted.

These areas are where I know the most concentrated beauties in Suzhou. The crowd of beauties in Xujiabang is relatively complex, but basically they come to Suzhou from other places to make a living and make money; and then Zhuang basically There are college girls on the street, and the campus atmosphere is relatively strong; most of the people on Guanqian Street are adult women, who are relatively materialistic.

Those "girls" who hang out in bars, D-lounges, and hotels engaged in professional services are not included in my observation, because this situation exists to a greater or lesser extent in almost every developing city. , not representative of individual cities.

The above are the places that I know friends who like nightlife in Suzhou go to in the evening. It is said that there are more exciting places, but I have only heard about them and have no intention of experiencing them. If you want to visit Suzhou in the future, you can follow this map to take risks. If there is an accident, you will be responsible for the consequences! Whether Jiangnan produces beauties or not, only after visiting Suzhou and Hangzhou will you know that this statement is indeed true.

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(I still have a lot of experiences in Suzhou, especially the experiences of some new friends, which are very tortuous. It is difficult to express them in simple words, so I will write them down for now. So little by little, I’ll continue it when I have time.

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