Day 1 Suzhou → Xinghua → Suzhou
07:00
Meeting point 1: 07:00-07:10, intersection of Jintang Street and Zongguantang Road (near Exit 6 of Pinghe Road Station on Metro Line 2. Self-driving cars can park at Yaosheng Building, capped at 20 yuan/day).
The tour leader arranged interactions with everyone in the car, introduced the destination, and everyone was laughing and chatting all the way north.
10:10
After a little over three hours, we arrived in Xinghua City and headed to the Qianduo Scenic Area. Legend has it that the Qianduo formation was set up by Yue Fei, the governor of Taizhou, during his battle against the Jin army. Xinghua's average elevation is less than two meters, making farmland susceptible to waterlogging. During the dry season, locals dredge soil from low-lying areas and pile it on higher ground, creating islands of water-filled fields.
The dutian fields vary in size and shape, are not connected to each other, and can only be navigated by boat. Looking out over the dutian fields, rivers and ports are crisscrossed, and each dutian field looks like an island floating on the water, earning it the reputation of "the country of ten thousand islands".
Every autumn, you can enjoy the chrysanthemums and take a flower boat cruise (included in the price) through the sea of flowers to appreciate this beautiful scenery from another perspective.
Special reminder: September is the early blooming period, and there are not many chrysanthemums. It is more for enjoying the pastoral scenery on the water. Those who mind it will be fine. Mid-October to November is the peak blooming period of autumn chrysanthemums.
12:00
When the pastoral scenery of Qianduo has penetrated your heart, a crab feast that combines the original flavor of the water town with the freshness of autumn will add more color to this trip.
We had lunch at Qianduo Restaurant (due to limited budget, we didn’t have any whole crabs, haha). Every dish was filled with the local customs and seasonal gifts of Xinghua.
1:30 PM
We arrived at the Lizhong Water Forest in Lizhong Town, Xinghua City, 17 kilometers from the city. In the early 1980s, local officials and residents transformed the wasteland into dugouts and planted aquatic species like pond cypress and metasequoia, gradually creating the vast water forest landscape we see today.
The forest area here is 1,050 mu and the water area is 500 mu. It is a paradise for wild animals, with egrets, black cuckoos, wild ducks and other birds living there all year round.
There are many tourist routes inside. You can stroll on the wooden plank road and admire the dense forests on both sides; you can also take a raft and go along the winding waterway to experience the wonderful artistic conception of "the raft is walking in the forest and people are swimming in the painting".
4:30 PM
Return to Suzhou in due time.
8:30 PM
We expected to arrive back in Suzhou around 20:30. Everyone was reluctant to leave and kissed goodbye with tears in their eyes.
