Sometime about two years ago when we had just made the move to Suzhou and were still trying to get our heads wrapped around the new city we went online to see what info we could find. Unfortunately, the only thing that we came up with was the local government website and it didn’t have much. We did read about a pedestrian walking street called Shangtang Street (上塘街) near Shi Road that sounded somewhat promising. The website said that the street would soon be filled with bars and pubs as well as an outdoor market. Since the post on the website was fairly old we assumed it would, by now, be a good place to go get liquored up. No dice. There are still no bars on the street and the government website’s post hasn’t changed. Eventually we would find out that there are some good local restaurants but we didn’t figure it out that day.
Being the slack-tongued yokels that we are, or maybe our taxi driver just assumed that we couldn’t possibly want to go to Shangtang Street, he took us to Shantang Street (山塘街), which is a pedestrian street and only a few minutes walk from the similarly named street. We arrived there after the taxi driver proved to us that, “two wrongs don’t make a right but three lefts do make a right hand turn.”
Shantang Street runs all the way from Tiger Hill into the downtown Stone Road shopping district. Nearer to Tiger Hill the street is a mish mash of incredibly old, decrepit but still beautiful homes where people still do their laundry in the canal. You’ll find the occasional well preserved structure carrying a plaque stating the name of the former resident but it will probably be tightly padlocked to visitors. During our first trip here we encountered a ridiculous ticket booth where a woman sharply informed us, as dozens of Chinese tourists swarmed past, that we would need a ticket to continue down the road. We ended up skirting around the youth hostel and getting back on the road without buying a ticket. On the day when we went to take these pictures, the same ticket booth was there and it now had prices listed for guided tours, entrance to different buildings, boatmen and more but we walked straight through without being asked to buy a ticket. The street abounds with authentic Suzhou handicraft and it’s the safest place we know of to pick up something authentic and real as long as you avoid the street stalls between Tiger Hill and the section where it is possible but not necessary to buy a ticket. If you like strolling down Pingjiang Road, you’ll find that this place has far more to offer on all fronts.
 "Shantang Street")
 "Shantang Street")
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