You step off a wooden boat by a stone bridge on Pingjiang Road, and music drifts from a teahouse where a pingtan storyteller is halfway through a tale in Suzhou dialect. Nearby, white walls hide ponds, rockeries and pavilions built by scholars who wanted the mountains at home.
Beyond the old town, Shantang Street follows its canal out to Tiger Hill, and to the east glass towers line Jinji Lake, led by the trouser-shaped Gate to the East. Summers are hot and humid with June's plum rains, while winters turn cool and damp. When your list of gardens runs out, a Local Friend picks the next stop, maybe a noodle counter or a canal lane you would have missed.
