During my visit to Suzhou, we stayed in the Hotel Soul.
What I like about Hotel Soul is, it has an ideal location with easy access to restaurants and shopping nearby. The famous Guanqian Pedestrian shopping street is only within walking distance, 5 mins.
Hotel Soul is the contemporary boutique hotel in Suzhou, it has adopted a unique design concept which consisted elements of modern and ancient China. You can all these decorations of modern and old inside the elevators.
The elevator here are kind of interesting. Each elevator has a different theme, you will see China’s past and the modern of China. The hotel also uses vibrant colors, fun texture, and space-age fixtures to bring guests into a futuristic frontier. Ancient paintings and antiques are also displayed in a different corner of the hotel.
Inside the elevator, there is a tv monitor featuring old China with President Mao having his speech.
Going up to our room.
Room Review
It was a triple sharing room that we have booked. The room is very spacious and clean.
Bathroom Review
The bathroom is fully equipped with clean towel, dryer, toiletries.
Guan Qian Shopping Street
We have our meals in Guan Qian Shopping Street nearby. This is the perfect place to do your shopping and having your meals. Lots of shops and food choices and most importantly this place is for locals. You will find local and international brands and many shops are having huge discounts.
Tanghulu is one of the local delights here and you should try out the strawberry tanghulu.
Passed by a bread shop that has a super long snake queue.
Having our late lunch in the local restaurant in Quanqian Shopping Street.
Suzhou duck in special sauce
Vegetable with shrimps
Dongpo Meat
This may not look very tempting after being cut. Originally it was in a big chuck and looks super pretty. Dong Po Rou is a traditional dish of braised pork belly, created by Su Dong Po a famous writer, poet, painter and statesman of the Song dynasty. This is a must-try in Suzhou.
Garlic Seafood platter with vermicelli
We had our dinner at Quan Qian shopping street again before we returned to our hotel to rest. This time we tried some fusion cuisine instead. It is a local chain restaurant, serving noodles and rice.
Dumpling
Beef rib hot pot with rice
Breakfast in hotel Soul
The food choices are so huge but most are Chinese cuisines, such as noodles, rice and bun.
Where is Suzhou?
Suzhou is a major city in the south of China, half an hour by high-speed rail from Shanghai. Some people even do a day trip from Shanghai. The city is famous for its gardens and silk products. Things in Suzhou is relatively cheap compared to Shanghai. If you love Chinese gardens, ancient shopping streets and Chinese opera, come visit Suzhou.
Final thoughts:
What I like most about Hotel Soul is the location as it has lot of eateries nearby. Quan Qian Shopping Street is just 5 mins walk from the hotel. This allows us to have our dinner almost every night in Quan Qian shopping Street.
