Lion Forest Garden

Erik, Heidi and Kirsten arrived in China from Japan and came to Suzhou. We went to a Lion Forest Garden and walked along canal in Ping Jiang Road and then stop by at tea house.
Lion Forest Garden is like a maze. To get to the main garden and pond, we need to go through caves and stairs formed by “grotesque stones” These stones are made from Taihu Lake , which is a white stone naturally created by waves of Taihu Lake over several thousand years. It was a trend to have the stone in garden around 11th century. Because Taihu Lake is here in Suzhou, grotesque stones are in every garden.First time I saw the stone at Yiheyuan Garden in Beijing in 1989. Since then I haven’t understood beauty of the stone. Anyway, if you have only one day in Suzhou, I would recommend to go to Lion Forest Garden and/or Master of the Nets Garden (a smaller garden located near ShiQuan road about 4 kilometers south of Lion Forest Garden) [Jesse says also see HuQiu Tiger Mountain]We took a nice canal path called Ping Jiang Road and got to a new tea house I have heard about on the net. It used to be owned by the richest family in Suzhou. Now it is a tea house in day time and bar at night. It is nice atmosphere but kind of pricy. When we were there two big groups of old Chinese people came in. It might be a trendy spot among rich old Chinese.