二访山塘Re-Visit Shang-Tang Street

Saturday evening we visited Shang Tang Old Street Close to Shi-Lu District. We had visited there last winter during the day time. Last time we took a wrong entrance at Hu-Qiu (虎丘） instead of Shi-Lu（石路）, and that took us more than 1 hour walking to arrive this most popular and noisy place.
The special part about Shang Tang Street is its stores and the red lanterns hanging on every store. The Stores sell Su-fans, traditional Chinese toys, costumes, and slippers, decorated dried gourds, and silk. There is also one traditional Ping-Tan Show Stage with singers and Chinese music players singing and playing music to the public for free. Shang Tang Street is long, however the exhibiting part of the street is short. Thus it is recommended for busy or lazy travelers to pay a short and quick visit After walking out of Shang-Tang Street, we ate in a very old-style restaurant called The Big Second Raw-fried Bun Store (大阿二生煎）. It is called raw fried bun store, because the buns are fried on the pan right after they are fermented, which is different from the common way of steaming or baking them. The store workers were friendly and old fashioned. And because everything was so old fashioned, we were a bit worried about the hygiene part of the food and service. So We took some stomach pills to make ourselves feel safe after we got home.

Stores along water ways

The street was paved with stone bricks

Ping-Tang Show Stage

老店 大阿二生煎 Raw-fried Bun Store

The Lantern on bun store's ceiling

Raw-fried buns

花豆腐（鹹豆花）-比我在园区吃到的还好吃哦！

虽然店面看起来很特色但老舊，客人不多。

不过地方老手艺还是值得一甞，回到家吃个胃药就放心了。

Enjoy the food as long as you remember to take pills afterwards.

Visit Suzhou, 上方山

上方山国家森林公园位于石湖景区内，它和石湖山水相依，风景很美。距市中心很近，离我们住处只需花20分鐘车程就可到达，不过因为第一次驱车前往，加上路标与地图显示不清，我们去程花了40分鐘，我们顺着人多的地方去，後来在一个路口塞爆，我下车问路，交警问我：「你要去幾号公墓？」Oh, oh！跟错路了，忘了4月5日大家忙着扫墓，差点開到墓仔埔。

公园面积很大，林木覆盖率高，植物种类多达300多种，但我大多不认识。我看到的认得的至少有松、樱、梅、蘭、杏等树种。景区内有缆车可达山峰的高塔，但可能只在旺季（7-11月）開放，我们去的时候没能坐到缆车。上方山内有很多古迹古道，但我们光是赏樱看孔雀就花了一个上午，所以没力气再多作停留，留着下次再访。

不必開太久的车就能身處名山勝水，这是苏州人独有的幸福。

孔雀饼干，好吃！