Suzhou (30th October 2015)

Suzhou is the Venice of the Orient. (Although Suzhou is land with water through it, whereas Venice is water with a few bit of land in it.)

It is home to several oriental gardens. Here's a glimpse of the garden of the Master of Nets. It seemed to me to be a large area made up of equal parts garden and house - sometimes garden courtyards surrounded by buildings, sometimes rooms surrounded by garden.

We visited the Humble Administrator's Garden, a UNESCO world heritage site. That was about 5 hectares of mostly garden (plants and ponds and streams) with some buildings and dividing walls.