My China Travel Blacklist... Consider This Your PSA!
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Oh, Suzhou… I’ve had my share of experiences here, and I don’t think I’ll come back just for leisure in the future. Here are some reminders for friends who also plan to visit:
- Firstly, I have to vent about the lack of trash bins near tourist spots or on main roads! There seems to be a scarce number of them—I feel like I had to walk around a lot with a food wrapper, hoping to find one.
- Another issue is that the prices for goods and accommodation seem relatively high, especially for hotels and guesthouses, which were much more expensive than expected.
- The most headache-inducing problem was not having enough public toilets on the streets! Once, when I really needed to use one, I saw an office, probably for city maintenance or public order preservation, and asked if I could use their restroom—it turned out they wouldn’t let me! I was very baffled by this—do people not need to use restrooms when they go out?
️ Important Travel Tips - Be Careful! ️
Toilet Issue:
* Warning: Public restrooms are hard to find, especially near tourist attractions.
* Solution: Use restrooms at malls, fast-food restaurants, coffee shops, or somewhere you eat before things get too urgent. You won't want to end up looking frantically for toilets later!
️ Garbage Disposal:
* Warning: Trash bins are quite sparse on the street.
* Solution: Bring your own small garbage bag or hold onto your trash until you return to your hotel or spot a trash bin.
Cost and Accommodation:
* Warning: Prices in Suzhou, particularly for accommodations during peak travel seasons, might exceed your expectations.
* Solution: Compare prices from multiple platforms when booking a hotel and consider accommodations farther away from popular tourist spots for better deals. You can also find cheaper meals at local street vendor's shops that locals often visit.
Overall, this trip to Suzhou left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed and slightly disappointed. It’s my hope that these concerns I’ve mentioned would be beneficial and helpful for you! #SuzhouTourismWarnings
#Suzhou #TouristComplaints #SuzhouTravelTips
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I totally agree! I traveled for four days, and only in Suzhou were the hotels absurdly expensive. It's impossible to find anything under 500 RMB. One guesthouse, where they even used disposable paper cups for brushing teeth, charged over 450 RMB a night, and it was more than ten subway stops away from any tourist spots! To give you an idea, in Hangzhou, I stayed at an All Seasons Hotel near Wulin Square for two nights starting October 1st, and it only cost a little over 900 RMB. The expensive hotels were bad enough, but on the way to the attractions, I witnessed something truly unbelievable: a fruit vendor chased down and verbally abused someone just for tasting a single loose grape and not buying it. I was utterly shocked to see something like that happen in this day and age.
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Even really rundown guesthouses cost 300-400 RMB a night. It was so filthy I barely dared to move all night, and the bed felt damp. And I almost couldn't even book a room! When I went to Chengdu earlier this year, a hotel for over 400 RMB was worlds better, for just a small difference in price.
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Of all the places I've traveled to, Suzhou is the only one I'd say I'll never visit again after returning home.
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@TheOneCursingMeToTakeMyBadLuck What's so attractive there that you're so worried I'd still go? You must be paranoid.
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It's true there aren't many trash cans, but it's quite clean. I actually kind of liked it.
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It was clean, sure, but I had to carry my trash with me the whole way.
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Whenever someone from Suzhou starts acting unreasonably with me online, I go and 'like' posts from others who've had similar negative experiences.
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Same here.
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Me too. I just got to Suzhou, and it's really terrible.
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Did you drive here? How about you rant about those long solid lane markings on our elevated highways? Go on, roast them! We'll support you on that one.
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As a local, let me offer my two cents. Due to strict garbage sorting rules, there are fewer public trash cans, similar to cities like Tokyo or Shanghai. Prices aren't cheap, especially at those trendy 'influencer' spots. But for tourists, it should be manageable, mainly because traveling anywhere is expensive these days. For hotels, you could opt for chains like Orange Hotel or Atour; prices should be reasonable outside of peak season.
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What a garbage city.
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Definitely garbage. I just visited today, and I'm never coming back in my lifetime.
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People from Jiangsu are just... well, you know. Anyone who's had dealings with them tends to develop a bias against them.