★ Tourist location: Pingjiang Road, Suzhou

I knew about Pingjiang Road because of a food recommendation. I learned that Suzhou cuisine is not limited to Guanqian Street and Shantang Street, but also Pingjiang Road, which is not as famous, which is also a place where delicious food is gathered.

I thought that this street would not have too much traffic, but we just didn't know its famous name. As soon as he reached the street, he saw the flow of people coming one after another. It turns out that this place has long become a favorite place for citizens and tourists.

Pingjiang Road is named after being built along the Pingjiang River. It is the most completely preserved area in the ancient city of Suzhou to date. It basically continues the city-square pattern since the Tang and Song Dynasties and can be called a microcosm of the ancient city. The direction of the whole street is relatively single, so basically you just go straight along the street. The street is more than 1600 meters long and the road surface is rectangular stone herringbone. It is very narrow and only about 3 meters wide. There are many alleys on both sides, which look like old houses and should have some history. The entire neighborhood is a typical Suzhou-style pattern of small bridges and flowing water and houses.

The Pingjiang River is the fourth straight river among the "three horizontal and four straight" main streams of Suzhou Ancient City. It is about five or six meters wide. It starts from Yuanqiao in the south and reaches Huayang Bridge in the north. There are a total of eleven bridges in the middle crossing it in the east-west direction.

Huxiang Bridge is the only arch-type single-hole ancient stone bridge in the neighborhood, and it is also one of the seven existing ancient stone arch bridges in the ancient city of Suzhou. It got its name because the alley in the east once lived in the official residence of the Xiang envoy surnamed Hu of the Song Dynasty. Although this bridge has also been renovated, the components that do not cross the bridge are still intact.

Sipo Bridge was originally named Shipo Bridge, because during the Tang Dynasty, there was a fart nunnery in Zifu Temple on the west of the bridge. In Suzhou dialect, Shipo and Sipo are the same as each other, so when you call them, you become Sipo. On the bridge are abutment columns made of Wukang stone and long stones carved with Ganoderma lucidum Baolian, both relics of the Song Dynasty. It can be seen that this bridge is also an ancient bridge with a history of thousands of years!

Zhuma Jiao Bridge was formerly named Zhuma Jiao Bridge. The origin of the bridge's name was related to Yue Fei, a famous anti-Jin hero in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, this was the grass transporting channel and hay farm for the horse team. Yue Fei's horse team general was surnamed Zhu, and Zizania meant hay, hence the name.

Although Pingjiang Road has been protectively renovated as a historical and cultural street, it basically tries to maintain its old appearance. In addition to history, Pingjiang Road is most famous and widely known for its delicious food. Many restaurants follow Suzhou's ancient food culture, and there are few from beginning to end.

Food on the street.

Walking from the street to the end of the street, I couldn't stop eating delicious food. Osmanthus cake, wine-brewed round seeds, crabapple cake, bamboo glutinous rice cake... there are also many improved and beautifully made little buns, rice dumplings and small cakes, which are cute to look at. If it weren't for the fact that there were too many people around me, I wouldn't think this was a commercial district.

There are many small shops on the street. Although they look inconspicuous at the door, each of them has their own main dishes. Zhuangyuan Street Dumpling House does not only make dumplings, but the most praised one is Su-flavored Opium Fish Head. The Shengjian shop also looks like an old shop. Although it is not as famous as Xiaolongbao, Shengjian is also a very popular snack in Jiangnan.

There is a stinky tofu store hidden deep in the alley. When we walked in, we found that we still had to queue up to buy a snack. The queue was not short, which really matched the saying that wine is not afraid of deep alleys.

The eating habits of Suzhou and Wuxi are very similar, and both are mainly sweet. All dishes with soy sauce do not contain sugar. Especially Wuxi pork ribs, their sweetness is so sweet that even people like me who grew up in Wuxi County since childhood accept incompetence. Squirrel Mandarin fish, sweet and sour pork ribs, sweet and sour fish, soy pork knuckles and other vegetables are all sweet. Although they are all famous dishes in Suzhou, few foreign tourists can accept their sweetness.

Qingyu Hall is very stylish, with authentic Suzhou Pingtan, and you can also visit all kinds of cheongsam. Suzhou dialect is soft and melodious. Even if you are quarreling at your throat, it seems like you are acting coquettishly. When you sing pingtan, it has a long charm!

The Pingjiang Courtyard is still under renovation. It looks like the house of a large family in ancient times. Although the scale is not too large, it is at least a well-off family, right? There are rockery and creek stones in the yard, which should be open to the public in the near future.

In fact, Pingjiang Road is a street worth tasting carefully, but it was too early when we arrived here. We had no time to taste carefully, so we could only focus on the delicious food.

We chose a three-flavor restaurant for dinner. The gate looked antique, so it must be an old restaurant. According to reports, the three flavors of this restaurant refer to the combination of traditional snacks, Jiangnan specialties, and healthy catering to innovate. It can be said that old dishes are newly made, right? The taste of the food was not bad and refreshing to the eye, but it was inevitable to be too sweet, but fortunately it was acceptable. Snacks are our most popular ones, and the final staple food can only be white spots.