Great Grandma’s Hood

I’ve arrived in Suzhou. My great grandma was born here. Perhaps this is why I have such an affinity for this city of canals and gardens. I remember that both my great grandma and I shared a love of ice cream and we would fight over the extra ice cream bar. I was six at the time and my great grandma would have been in her nineties.

On our way to the Suzhou Museum this morning, I was completely impressed by how clean Suzhou is compared to Ningbo, Hangzhou or Shanghai. I could only describe the other three cities as “grimy” as everything seems to be covered in a layer of dirt, including the sky. Shop owners were actually washing the sidewalk first thing in the morning.

The sky was blue!

There were such good barriers installed to prevent scooters from going on the sidewalks that even people had trouble accessing them.

People are so happy in Suzhou, they go to work with balloons everyday. Suzhou is awesome!