Serica Journeys Day journeys in China
East China · 苏州

Suzhou

Gardens designed as arguments, and the canals that paid for them.

Typical day
7–9 hours
Party size
1–6 guests
Guiding
English
Pick-up
Suzhou hotels; Shanghai pick-up on request

Suzhou's classical gardens are not parks. They are compositions built by retired officials to be read in sequence — a framed view, a borrowed distance, a deliberately awkward turn that makes the next opening land. Without someone to point that out they are pleasant and forgettable.

The city's wealth came from silk and from the Grand Canal, and both are still visible if you know where the working water is rather than the photographed water.

Journeys

2 private day journeys in Suzhou.

Prices are quoted per party once we know your dates and numbers. Every itinerary below can be adjusted — they are how we run the day by default, not a fixed menu.

8 hours Private departureEnglish guide

The Classical Gardens and the Silk Trade

Humble Administrator's Garden · Master of Nets · Silk mill · Pingjiang Road

Itinerary
08:30
Pick-up. Humble Administrator's Garden at opening.
10:30
Silk mill — reeling, doubling, and how a silk quilt is actually pulled.
12:00
Lunch.
13:30
Master of the Nets Garden.
15:00
Pingjiang Road and the canal lanes.
16:30
Back at your hotel.
Highlights
  • Two gardens of deliberately different scale, read as design rather than scenery
  • The Master of the Nets Garden — small, and the better of the two for it
  • A working silk operation: cocoon to quilt, no showroom pressure
  • Pingjiang Road's canal lanes on foot
Included
  • Private vehicle and driver
  • English-speaking guide
  • Both garden entries
  • Silk mill visit
  • Lunch
  • Bottled water
Not included
  • Silk purchases — and there is no obligation to make any
  • Gratuities

Know before you go. We do not take commissions from the silk mill. If you buy something it is because you wanted it.

8 hours Private departureEnglish guide

Tongli Water Town and the Grand Canal

Tongli canals · Retreat & Reflection Garden · Boat · Grand Canal

Itinerary
08:30
Pick-up. South to Tongli, about forty minutes.
09:30
The three bridges, the lanes, the courtyard houses.
11:00
Retreat and Reflection Garden.
12:00
Lunch by the canal.
13:30
Boat through the town.
14:30
Grand Canal viewpoint on the way back.
16:30
Back at your hotel.
Highlights
  • A canal town still lived in rather than staged
  • The Retreat and Reflection Garden, built along the water instead of around it
  • Hand-poled boat through the residential canals
  • The Grand Canal where the barges still work
Included
  • Private vehicle and driver
  • English-speaking guide
  • Town and garden entry
  • Canal boat
  • Lunch
  • Bottled water
Not included
  • Personal spending
  • Gratuities

Know before you go. Tongli is quieter than the better-known water towns, which is why we use it.

Other cities
Beijing
Shanghai
Xi'an
Chengdu
Hangzhou
Guilin & Yangshuo