Suzhou is a city that exudes elegance and romance everywhere, making it very suitable for weekend travel. There are many small scenic spots in Suzhou's Laocheng District. Even an ordinary street has a unique charm. There are no high-rise buildings in the Laocheng District, but it retains its simple style. Walking in these small alleys, it feels like you are in an ancient town. This is the daily life of local people.

01 Internet Master Garden, feel the charm of niche gardens

Gardens are Suzhou's business card. There are many large and small gardens in the Laocheng District of Suzhou, but not all of these gardens are popular tourist attractions. If you like to be lively, you can visit the well-known Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden, etc. There are many tourists almost every day, and the scale of the gardens is also larger. I prefer quieter gardens. Visiting such classical gardens requires slowing down and spending some time to appreciate and understand. This time, I chose the more niche Internet Master Garden.

The Master of Nets Garden is located in Kuojiatou Lane in the south of Suzhou's Laocheng District. Entering from a narrow alley is the gate to the garden, giving a feeling of openness. Although it is not as famous as Humble Administrator's Garden, it has a longer history. The Master of Nets Garden was built during the Southern Song Dynasty. It is considered to be the "older" among Suzhou gardens, about 400 years earlier than Humble Administrator's Garden.

Although I have the impression that the Internet Master's Garden is a niche garden with not many tourists, maybe today is the weekend and there are more tourists than I thought. However, according to my observation, these tourists are not here for the purpose of sightseeing. Many of them are study tours and come here to study ancient architecture. They are led by professional teachers to explain. They may be college students majoring in architecture.

Today's cities are becoming more and more homogeneous, and high-rise buildings have been built in the new Urban area, giving people a very depressing feeling. Suzhou's Laocheng District is very comfortable. There are not many modern buildings, giving people a relaxed and leisurely feeling. It is very suitable for tourists from the postal service area to come for vacation and leisure on weekends, visit gardens or museums, taste local snacks, or find a comfortable hotel to stay for most of the day.

The predecessor of Wangshi Garden was the former site of the "Wanjuantang" of Shi Zhengzhi, a Yangzhou literati who was a book collector, official and assistant minister during the Southern Song Dynasty. Like the fate of many Suzhou gardens, this garden has gradually become abandoned with the changes of history. Until the Qianling period of the Qing Dynasty, the retired Guanglu Temple Shaoqing Song Zongyuan purchased it and rebuilt it, and the garden was named "Wangshi Garden".

The Master of Nets Garden covers an area of only half a hectare and is probably one of the smallest gardens in Suzhou. Because the garden is compact, its landscape design is more sophisticated and unique. All the pavilions and pavilions in the garden are close to the water, and there is water everywhere in the garden.

The names of many buildings in the garden are also unique, making people feel particularly elegant and poetic. The building near the water has a branch pavilion outside the bamboo. Its name comes from Su Shi's poem "Spring is dark at the head of the river, but a branch outside the bamboo is better." There is also a pavilion from the moon to the wind, which also comes from the ancient poem "When the moon reaches the heart of the sky, when the wind comes to the water."

What many people don't know is that the Internet Master's Garden has actually traveled across the ocean and been copied to the United States. In 1978, friendly people from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York came to visit Suzhou. They were intoxicated by Suzhou gardens and decided to build a garden building in the museum. The Suzhou garden reproduced in the United States was called "Mingxuan". It was a courtyard built in spring like the Temple of the Internet Master Garden, which caused a sensation at the time.

Because the Master of Nets Garden is very small, many details are strived to be perfect. Walking to a corner, you can see the careful landscape design. Every grass and tree look like a painting with a myriad of artistic conception.

Many gardens in Suzhou were built by officials at that time after they retired, and they also implied boredom with officialdom. The "net master" of the net master garden refers to fishermen and fishermen, expressing the owner's wish to retire into the Jianghu.

Master of Nets Garden is located in the Laocheng District of Suzhou, with convenient transportation and can be reached by many buses. Winter is the off-season for tourism in the Internet Master Park. Tickets are only 30 yuan, so it is still worth visiting.

02 Wuzhong Museum, learn about the history of a city

To understand the history of a city, you must go to a museum. The Suzhou Museum is very famous. It is a work designed by architect I.M. Pei. It has become an Internet celebrity check-in place, with constant tourists every day. This time, I also chose a niche museum-Wuzhong Museum.

Wuzhong Museum is located in Wuzhong District in the south of Suzhou City. It is close to the world cultural heritage Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and Baodai Bridge. The surrounding environment is as elegant as a park. The predecessor of Wuzhong District was Wu County. It is an Gu County with a history of more than 2000 years. It has been established since the Qin Shi Huang period. It is also the birthplace of Wu culture.

Wuzhong Museum is positioned to spread Wu culture. The entire museum has a construction area of 18000 square meters. It is not only a place for the collection and exhibition of cultural relics, but also a classroom for cultural exchange and dissemination. Through each cultural relic, visitors can understand the development of Wu culture and its far-reaching influence.

The museum opened in June 2020. It has only been a few months. The entire museum has a sense of design and a high "beauty". In the future, it will also become a place for young people to come and check in. There are more than 7000 cultural relics in the collection, all of which are unearthed in the former Wu County and now in Wuzhong District.

The second floor is the main exhibition venue of the Wuzhong Museum, which is divided into the special exhibition areas of "Archaeological Exploration of Wuzhong" and "Ode to Elegance of Wuzhong". Each cultural relic has a simple text introduction. Of course, if a professional explains it, you can learn more relevant historical knowledge.

There are many high-quality cultural relics in the museum, commonly known as the "treasures of the town hall", which makes people feel the charm of art from hundreds of years ago or even thousands of years ago. Cultural relics unearthed in each region will have some differences in shape and decoration, which is also caused by the differences in culture in each region.

The museum's decoration is fresh and elegant, just like visiting a Suzhou garden. The museum is a window to spread culture. As a newly completed museum, Wuzhong Museum has added many elements that young people like.

There is also a cultural and creative area in the museum. Many common daily necessities such as tea sets and chopsticks have added elements of Wu culture and have unique cultural connotations. Through the glass curtain wall of the museum, you can see the Baodai Bridge not far away, which is the longest existing ancient bridge in Suzhou.

03 Choose a hotel and you should be relaxed and comfortable on weekends

I stayed at Four Points by Sheraton Suzhou Wuzhong Hotel this time. Everything was very new and not far from the Master of Nets Garden and Wuzhong Museum. Although it is located in a prosperous area of Wuzhong District, it is also very quiet at night, which is perfect.

As a Marriott hotel, its quality will not disappoint. The Ekele Restaurant on the second floor is the place where breakfast is eaten, and the buffet is also eaten here. I like the environment here very much. It has traditional Chinese design concepts and bright colors, and I can taste delicious food from all over the world.

On weekends, you should do whatever you want, sleep until you wake up naturally, go to the restaurant for breakfast, and then think about where to go, or spend the day in a hotel.

The hotel's lobby is spacious enough and atmospheric. I especially like to find a seat by the window, take a look at the green outside the window, and order a cup of my favorite drink or beer. The hotel's beer is also very distinctive.

The beer here is all craft beer, which means that the beer tastes of each hotel are different. Their beer names are also very special, such as "Panmen" and "Taohuawu", which are all place names in the Laocheng District of Suzhou. For beer lovers, it must not be missed.

For a hotel, sleeping comfortably is crucial. This is the hotel's "core competitiveness". The hotel rooms are designed to be simple and comfortable. Especially worth mentioning is the comfortable bed of Four Points Sheraton. They sleep until they wake up naturally all night and wake up full of energy. In addition, the hotel rooms are also equipped with a 55-inch high-definition LCD TV to enjoy the feeling of home theater.

Catering is also a highlight of the hotel. As an international hotel chain, catering must not only have local characteristics, but also be of international standards. This time, I specially experienced the hotel's Western-style dining, which was really surprising. Not only was the product highly attractive, but the taste was also very good. The hotel's burger has two layers of meat, which is so satisfying to eat. There are also restaurants of various flavors next to the hotel, which is convenient for traveling and dining.