Singin' in the Rain

This is the rainy season in this part of China, but we've been pretty lucky avoiding the worst of it... until today. But we couldn't think of a better place to get caught in the rain than the tranquil canals and gardens of Suzhou. A boatman took us on a casual spin through Suzhou's canals with the fish-tail motion of his lone stern-mounted oar. The rain pattered all around us as we passed homes and slid under bridges that were as many as hundreds of years old. To cap it off, he sang a song in the local dialect that celebrated the beauty of Suzhou. This moment was one of the more memorable of our trip to date.

Suzhou is also famous for expansive gardens with fanciful names and we enjoyed three of them today (Lingering Garden, Humble Administrator's Garden and Master of Nets Garden). It was raining there too, but it only made them feel softer and more alive. We learned that Suzhou is proud of its "softness." "The water of our canals, our dialect, our gardens, even our weathered rocks are 'soft'," said Ya our local guide. Soft and wet in Suzhou... the ideal place to spend the rainy days of June.