17 Dec 2017 - Shanghai Day 3: Bullet Train to Suzhou (苏州)

One of the reasons why we stayed in a hotel around Hong Qiao is that we had plans to make day trips to nearby cities by bullet trains which depart from Hong Qiao Train Station (虹桥火车站).  We took a bullet train to Suzhou (苏州) today.  We had already purchased our train tickets online before this trip but we need to collect the actual tickets from the station counter.

China high speed trains can reach 300 km/h (186 mph), or a top speed of 350 km/h (217 mph).  Our train journey from Hong Qiao to Suzhou took less than half an hour.

There are 3 types of seats, namely second-class, first-class and business-class.  We bought the first-class seats which is in a 2 by 2 configuration.

The moment we arrived at Suzhou train station, we were approached by multiple people offering to bring us to various attractions at very low rates.  Though they were very persistent and followed us for quite a distance, we were very firm with our stand, that is NO.  We heard many "negative" stories about such touting so we did our own research and decided to explore the attractions on our own.

We found several sightseeing walking trails from the internet and we decided to follow one.  Actually Javier had been complaining about some pain in his left leg since last night.  When asked if he's ok to walk, his answer was consistent throughout the trip:"Can but pain......".

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