西班牙女孩的蘇州回憶日記（正文二）
my life in suzhou
譯文簡介
昨天是端午節(jié)。端午節(jié)是一個傳統(tǒng)的節(jié)日，人們吃粽子，觀看龍舟比賽。他們?yōu)槭裁催@么做？因為很久以前，在戰(zhàn)國時期，有一個詩人跳河自殺了......
正文翻譯
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：超級涼快 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處
DUANWU FESTIVAL
1.端午節(jié)
Yesterday it was the Duanwu Festival. Duanwu is a traditional holiday in which people eat zongzi (glutionous rice wrapped in a leaf) and watch the dragon boat races. Why do they do this? Because a long time ago, in the Warring States period, there was a poet who commited suicide jumping in the river. The villagers quickly went with their boats to save him or retrieve the body, but couldn’t find it, so they threw rice balls in the water for the fish to eat them instead of the poet’s body. Duanwu stopped being celebrated in China after 1949 when the People’s Republic was founded, but it was restored as a public holiday in 2008 (so tomorrow we don’t work. Yay!).
昨天是端午節(jié)。端午節(jié)是一個傳統(tǒng)的節(jié)日，人們吃粽子，觀看龍舟比賽。他們?yōu)槭裁催@么做？因為很久以前，在戰(zhàn)國時期，有一個詩人跳河自殺了。村民們迅速劃著船去救他，或者說找回他的尸體，但是沒有找到，于是他們把飯團扔進水里，讓魚來吃飯團，這樣它們就不會去吃詩人的尸體。1949年中國成立后，中國就不再慶祝端午節(jié)了。但在2008年，端午節(jié)被恢復(fù)為公共假日(所以明天我們不用工作，耶！)
I have been in China for many years but I have to confess I had never been to the dragon boat races until yesterday. In Suzhou they are done in the Jinji Lake, very close to our apartment, so we made the great effort of getting up early on a Saturday and went to see what it was all about. Besides, some of C.’s colleagues were competing in the race!
我在中國已經(jīng)很多年了，但是我必須承認，直到昨天我才看過龍舟比賽。在蘇州，它是在金雞湖上進行的，離我們的公寓很近，所以我們努力的在一個星期六早早爬起來，去看看到底是怎么回事。另外，C.的一些同事也參加了比賽！
It was very interesting to finally see the races, but it was too hot and crowded and we didn’t stay long. Anyway, I’m glad the government decided to restore the traditional holidays, even if that means we don’t get a week off for May 1 anymore!
比賽很有趣，但是因為又熱又擁擠，我們沒有停留太久。無論如何，我很高興政府決定恢復(fù)這個傳統(tǒng)節(jié)日，即使這意味著我們在5月1日不再有一個星期的假期！
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THE OLD VILLAGE OF BRIGHT MOON BAY
2.明月灣的老村莊
As we had three days of holidays last week, we decided to go somewhere instead of couchpotatoing the whole time. We were considering Chongming Island, in Shanghai, and Xishan Island, in Suzhou, and finally went to Xishan.
因為上周我們有三天假期，所以我們決定去找個地方逛逛，而不是整天坐在沙發(fā)上。我們考慮了上海的崇明島和蘇州的西山島，最后決定去西山島。
Xishan is the largest island in Tai Lake so it is not a palm trees and beach kind of island. Tai Lake, the third largest lake in China, is to the southwest of Suzhou and it is famous for its fish, shrimps and crabs. Getting to Xishan is very convenient as there is a bridge from the “mainland”! When C. was a child, the only way was taking the ferry.
西山島是太湖中最大的島嶼，所以它不是一個有著棕櫚樹和海灘的那種小島嶼。太湖是中國第三大湖，位于蘇州西南部，以盛產(chǎn)魚、蝦、蟹而聞名。到西山島非常方便，因為那里有一座和“大陸”相連的橋！當C.還是個孩子的時候，去那里唯一的辦法就是坐渡船。
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THE DAILY COMMUTE
3.每天上下班通勤
As I mentioned in the post about books, since October I don’t have a room in Shanghai anymore and I have to commute every day from Suzhou. That implies taking 2 trains.
正如我在關(guān)于書籍的帖子中提到的，我退掉了上海租住的公寓。所以從十月份開始，我不得不每天從蘇州到上海上班，下班再回到蘇州。這意味著每天要坐兩趟火車。
Does it sound exhausting? Well, it is actually better than I was expecting. The worst parts are getting up early in the morning and arriving home quite late! I don’t have time to do much during the week, but at least I can read on the train. A full one way journey takes 1.5 hours, which is more or less the same time it takes my colleagues who live in Pudong to arrive to our office in Jing’An.
聽起來累嗎？實際上比我想象的要好。最糟糕的是早上起得很早，晚上回家卻很晚！不過平時我沒有時間做很多事情，現(xiàn)在至少我可以在火車上看書。整個過程需要1.5個小時，差不多是我住在浦東的同事到我們靜安區(qū)辦公室的時間。
I leave home at 8 am. C. drives me to the train station, which luckily is quite close. The train departs at 8:28 but you have to arrive at least 5 minutes earlier to get in. By the way, if anyone needs to take the high speed train frequently, between Nanjing and Shanghai or any of the stations in between, you can purchase a top up card and access the train without needing to buy the actual ticket every time.
我早上8點離開家。C.開車送我到火車站，幸運的是火車站離我家很近?；疖?點28分開，但你必須至少提前5分鐘到達才能上車。順便說一下，如果有人需要經(jīng)常乘坐高鐵從南京到上?；蛘咧虚g的任何一個車站，你可以購買一張充值卡，每次都可以乘坐，而不需要購買真正的車票。
The bad part about that card is that, even though you pay the full price, you don’t get a seat. So, unless there is an empty seat, you will have to stand for 30 minutes, which is the duration of the trip from Suzhou Yuanqu station to Shanghai.
不過這張卡的缺點在于，即使你付了全價，你也沒有座位。因此，除非有一個空座位，否則你必須站上30分鐘，這是從蘇州工業(yè)園區(qū)到上海需要的時間。
If I don’t have a seat I just stand near the door of the second carriage, because it will be the closest to the exit gate in the station. When the train arrives to Shanghai it’s better to hurry up and be the first to get to the gate, because there you have to check your ticket again and everybody knows how Chinese people queue…
如果我沒有座位，我就站在第二節(jié)車廂的門附近，因為那里離車站的出口最近。當火車到達上海的時候，最好行動快一點，爭取最先到達門口，因為在那里你必須再次檢票，每個人都知道中國人排隊有多瘋狂...
There is a subway exit directly in the train station. Line 1 is always crowded, but every day at around 9:05 am there is an empty train arriving.
在火車站有一個地鐵出口，所以1號線總是很擁擠，但每天上午9:05左右都會有一列空車到站。
That’s my daily commute. But only until January, when I will start working from home!
這就是我每天上下班的路線。但只要熬到一月份，我就可以開始在家工作了！
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SUZHOU ON THE CHEAP (AND VEGETARIAN!)
4.蘇州的廉價素食
Two weeks ago, a couple of my workmates came to Suzhou to spend the weekend with us. I asked what they wanted to visit in the city, they only said “old things”. Well, we have a bunch of those in Suzhou! So I tailor-made an itinerary for them and I consciously avoided the main tourist attractions in Suzhou, like the Tiger Hill and the Humble Administrator’s garden. Why? Because they have ridiculously expensive entrance tickets. To give you an idea, in low season, the ticket to the Forbidden City in Beijing is 40 RMB. For the Humble Administrator’s garden it is 70. Are they crazy or not? Also, because my workmates are vegan, I found several vegetarian restaurants where we could go eat and then looked for cheap, nice places we could visit nearby. We saved a lot on entrance tickets and spent it all on food!
兩個星期前，我的兩個同事來蘇州和我們一起度周末。我問他們在蘇州想?yún)⒂^什么，他們說“古老的東西”。哦，我們蘇州有一大堆這樣的東西！所以我為他們量身定做了一個旅游路線，有意識地避開了蘇州的主要旅游景點，比如虎丘和拙政園。為什么？因為它們的門票貴得離譜。給你個比較，在淡季，北京紫禁城的票價是40元。而拙政園是70。他們是不是瘋了？另外，因為我的同事都是素食主義者，我找到了幾家素食餐廳，我們可以去那里吃飯，然后在附近找一些便宜的好地方去參觀。我們在門票上省了很多錢，不過全花在食物上了！
These are the places we visited:
以下是我們?nèi)⒂^的地方:
Qu garden (曲園). Address: 人民路馬醫(yī)科巷43號 (close to subway stop Leqiao). Price: free!
曲園。地址:人民路馬醫(yī)科巷43號(靠近樂橋地鐵站)。價格:免費！
I had never heard about this garden before but I found it online. It was the house of some government official from the Qing dynasty. It is a small garden, but you can see all the characteristics that the big gardens also have, albeit in a smaller size: the red wooden pavilions, the rock “mountain” with a maze, the fish pond, the calligraphy… And, I repeat, for free. And without crowds. The only visitors in the garden were a young mom with her son sitting in the garden and a bunch of old ladies rehearsing their singing in one of the pavilions. I think it’s great that they can use this garden as a meeting place for their community!
我以前從未聽說過這個園林，我是在網(wǎng)上找到的。這是清朝某個官員的房子。這是一個小園林，盡管規(guī)模較小，但你可以看到大園林所擁有的所有特征:紅色的木亭、帶迷宮的假“山”、魚池、書法...我再說一遍，是免費的。而且沒有那么擁擠的人群。當時園林里唯一的參觀者是一位年輕的母親和她的兒子，還有一群老太太在其中一個亭子里排練她們的歌曲。我認為她們能把這個園林作為她們社區(qū)的聚會場所是很棒的！
(Note: there is a bigger garden very close to this one but that is not free. It’s called Yi garden (怡園) and the ticket is 40 RMB. I have never been, but according to a friend it’s not worth it).
(注意:有一個比較大的園林離這個園林很近，但不是免費的。它叫做怡園，票價是40元。我從來沒去過，但據(jù)一個朋友說，它不值這個票價。
From Qu garden you can walk around the alleys, which are basically Suzhou’s version of Beijing’s hutongs. If you peek through the open doors you will see that many entrances have a long corridor leading to several apartments. If it’s sunny you will also probably see people eating outside or playing cards. And loads of hanging clothes, of course.
從曲園出來，你可以沿著胡同漫步，這些胡同基本上就是蘇州版的北京胡同。如果你透過敞開的門往里看，你會看到許多入口都有一條長長的走廊通向幾個公寓。如果天氣晴朗，你可能還會看到人們在戶外吃飯或打牌。當然，還有一大堆掛著的衣服。
After lunch we walked towards the Beisi Pagoda (北寺塔). It is very close to where C.’s parents live but I have never been there. This time it couldn’t be, either, as they close at 3 pm and we couldn’t get in. Isn’t 3 pm kind of early to close a tourist attraction?
午飯后，我們走著去了北寺塔。那里離C.的父母住的地方很近，但我從沒去過那里。這次也去不了，因為他們下午3點就關(guān)門，我們進不去。下午3點關(guān)門對于一個旅游勝地來說是不是有點早？
For dinner we went to my favourite vegetarian restaurant in Suzhou. I used to live very close to it but now I’m further away so I can’t go during lunch break.
晚餐我們?nèi)チ宋以谔K州最喜歡的素食餐廳。我以前住得離這里很近，但現(xiàn)在我住得離這里很遠，所以午休時間來不及去。
Surging Waves pavilion (滄浪亭). Address: 人民路44號, in front of the Temple of Confucious. Price: 15 RMB.
滄浪亭。地址:人民路44號，在孔廟前面。價格:15RMB。
On Sunday it rained. Boooh! But we still had to do something, so we went to the Surging Waves pavilion. It is one of the classical gardens that are listed by Unesco in Suzhou. It’s my favourite of the famous gardens because it’s the cheapest one. It’s quite big and has a decent sized rock mountain in the middle, many pavilions, bamboo gardens and a covered corridor going all around the place.
星期天下雨了，嗚嗚！但是我們還是得做點什么，所以我們?nèi)チ藴胬送?。它是被?lián)合國教科文組織列入名錄的蘇州古典園林之一。這是我最喜歡的著名園林，還因為它是最便宜的一個。它的面積相當大，中間有一座相當大的假山，還有很多亭子，竹園和一條環(huán)繞著它的抄手游廊。
After lunch in a Lanzhou noodles place whose boss was kind enough to prepare vegetarian dishes, we went to have a foot massage as my workmates had never tried one. The masseurs had a great time making fun of the 3 foreigners plus the Chinese who also looks foreigner.
我們在一家蘭州面館吃了午飯，老板很好心地準備了素菜。吃完飯，我們?nèi)プ隽俗惘?，因為我的同事從來沒有嘗試過。按摩師們很開心地打趣了3個外國人和那些看起來像外國人的中國人。
Shantang Street (山塘街). Subway line 2 has a stop right there, called Shantang St. Price: free!
山塘街。地鐵2號線就在那里有一個站點，叫山塘街站。價格:免費！
This is the other famous old street in Suzhou. Very revamped (it even has a Starbucks and a Family Mart with their facades imitating the traditional wooden doors) but still very pretty at night, when they turn on all the red lanterns. First time visitors always love it. If you want to get some souvenir, I suggest you have your face done in a paper cut, it’s quite unique. My workmates did it and the paper cut master had a hard time getting their foreign faces right. He said they used to charge more for foreigners, until a Chinese speaking laowai protested. But it is true that in the time it took him to do my friends, the other master did 4 or 5 Chinese people.
這是蘇州另一條著名的老街，還進行了翻新(它甚至有一個星巴克和一個家庭用品超市，它們的門面都是模仿的傳統(tǒng)的木門)，晚上所有的紅燈籠都點亮時，這里非常漂亮。第一次來這里參觀的游客總是很喜歡這里。如果你想得到一些紀念品，我建議你去買一張按照你的臉做成的剪紙，這是相當獨特的。我的同事們都這么做了，剪紙師傅費了好大勁才把他們的外國面孔弄對。他說他們過去對外國人收取更高的費用，直到一個會說中文的老外提出了抗議。但事實是， 他幫我朋友做一個用的時間，另一位師傅可以幫四五個中國人做完。
Even though we didn’t visit any of the super famous sights, my friends were very happy with their Suzhou visit. You should check these places out if you haven’t been!
雖然我們沒有參觀任何一個特別著名的經(jīng)典，但我的朋友們都對他們的蘇州之行感到非常高興。如果你沒去過這些地方，你應(yīng)該去看看！
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DISCOVERING NEW PLACES
5.我發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個新地方
I have been living in Suzhou for over 4 years now, but there are still some places that I haven’t been to. For example, I haven’t been to all of the famous Suzhou gardens, only to some of them (all of them look similar, right?). I haven’t been to Baker & Spice or Kamal’s Indian restaurant either. I could go on and on. Seriously, I don’t know what I do with my weekends. But I am trying to change!
我在蘇州已經(jīng)住了四年多了，但是還有一些地方我沒有去過。例如，我沒有把所有著名的蘇州園林都看過一遍，只去過其中一些(它們看起來都差不多，對吧？)。我也沒去過Baker&Spice或Kamal這樣的印度餐廳。還有很多，我可以一直說下去。說真的，我不知道我周末都怎么過的。但是我正在努力改變！
A few days ago we had a long weekend for the Mid-Autumn festival. It was cloudy and rainy because there was a typhoon in Fujian, but I managed to move both our asses from the sofa and we went to visit one of those parts of Suzhou that we had never been before:
幾天前的中秋節(jié)，我們度過了一個漫長的周末。由于福建有臺風，所以天氣陰沉而多雨，但我設(shè)法把我們的屁股從沙發(fā)上挪開，我們?nèi)チ颂K州的一個我們從未去過的地方:
Keep walking and you will reach a very nice park called 東園 Dongyuan, which simply means East Park, as it’s on the east side of Suzhou’s old town. There are motor boats and fishing rods to rent, dozens of cats that live there, a rose garden, the garden of some old official, a pond full of lotus… and a small amusement park!
繼續(xù)往前走，你會到達一個非常漂亮的公園，名字叫東園，意思是東方公園，因為它位于蘇州老城的東側(cè)。那里可以租到摩托艇和釣魚竿，有幾十只貓住在那里，還有一個玫瑰花園，那是一個老官員的花園，一個滿是荷花的池塘...還有一個小游樂園！
I wanted to ride in the carousel but I arrived one minute after they closed! Grrr! Well, one more reason to go back!
我想坐旋轉(zhuǎn)木馬，但是我到那里的時候，它剛剛在一分鐘前關(guān)閉了！好吧，又多了一個下次來的理由！
I really enjoyed this walk, so I will definitely come back to this park!
我真的很喜歡這次散步，所以我一定會再到這個公園來！
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SUNDAY BY THE LAKE
6.星期日在湖畔散步
It’s that time of the year again! The beginning of summer means the rainy season is here. It has been raining a lot the last couple of weeks and there were also several thunderstorms. In Chinese these days are called 梅雨季 (plum rain season) and they are a synonym of hot and humid weather. Yikes! My previous apartment was in the second floor and I would even get mold on the walls and leather chairs.
又到了每年的這個時候了！夏天的開始就意味著雨季的到來。過去幾個星期一直在下雨，還有幾場雷雨。在中國，這一段時間被稱為梅雨季，它是炎熱潮濕天氣的代名詞。我以前的公寓在二樓，我甚至會發(fā)現(xiàn)在墻上和皮椅上有發(fā)霉的跡象。
The best part about rainy days in China is that the air gets noticeably cleaner. As you know, we have a big problem with pollution here. Suzhou rarely gets to airpocalypse levels, but usually the PM2.5 index is between 100 and 150, and that is not good. The sky is not “true blue”, but a greyish shade of blue. But in the last days I even saw pink colored clouds when walking Nico at 7 pm. Nice!
在中國，下雨最大的好處是空氣明顯變得更干凈了。如你所知，我們這里的污染問題很嚴重。蘇州很少達到空氣末日的水平，但通常PM2.5指數(shù)在100到150之間，這不是件好事。天空不是“真正的藍色”，而是一種灰藍色。但是在最近幾天，我甚至在晚上7點帶著Nico散步的時候，看到了粉紅色的云彩。太棒了！
Usually it always rains on the weekend, but this morning it was sunny, the air was clean and the ground was more or less dry. We took Nico to the lake and I brought my camera. It got cloudy when we got there but it didn’t rain. Nico wanted to get in the water but she’s a coward! She only swims where there are stairs leading to the water and she can see it’s not too deep.
通常周末都會下雨，但是今天早上天氣晴朗，空氣清新，地面或多或少干了一些。我們帶著Nico去了湖邊，我還帶上了我的相機。我們到那里時天陰了起來，但沒有下雨。Nico想下水玩，但她是個膽小鬼！她只在有通向水的樓梯的地方玩水，因為她看得出那里的水不是很深。
It was nice to be able to go out today. I hope you enjoyed your Sunday too!
今天能出去玩真好。我希望你在星期天也過得很愉快！
DUANWU FESTIVAL
1.端午節(jié)
Yesterday it was the Duanwu Festival. Duanwu is a traditional holiday in which people eat zongzi (glutionous rice wrapped in a leaf) and watch the dragon boat races. Why do they do this? Because a long time ago, in the Warring States period, there was a poet who commited suicide jumping in the river. The villagers quickly went with their boats to save him or retrieve the body, but couldn’t find it, so they threw rice balls in the water for the fish to eat them instead of the poet’s body. Duanwu stopped being celebrated in China after 1949 when the People’s Republic was founded, but it was restored as a public holiday in 2008 (so tomorrow we don’t work. Yay!).
昨天是端午節(jié)。端午節(jié)是一個傳統(tǒng)的節(jié)日，人們吃粽子，觀看龍舟比賽。他們?yōu)槭裁催@么做？因為很久以前，在戰(zhàn)國時期，有一個詩人跳河自殺了。村民們迅速劃著船去救他，或者說找回他的尸體，但是沒有找到，于是他們把飯團扔進水里，讓魚來吃飯團，這樣它們就不會去吃詩人的尸體。1949年中國成立后，中國就不再慶祝端午節(jié)了。但在2008年，端午節(jié)被恢復(fù)為公共假日(所以明天我們不用工作，耶！)
I have been in China for many years but I have to confess I had never been to the dragon boat races until yesterday. In Suzhou they are done in the Jinji Lake, very close to our apartment, so we made the great effort of getting up early on a Saturday and went to see what it was all about. Besides, some of C.’s colleagues were competing in the race!
我在中國已經(jīng)很多年了，但是我必須承認，直到昨天我才看過龍舟比賽。在蘇州，它是在金雞湖上進行的，離我們的公寓很近，所以我們努力的在一個星期六早早爬起來，去看看到底是怎么回事。另外，C.的一些同事也參加了比賽！
It was very interesting to finally see the races, but it was too hot and crowded and we didn’t stay long. Anyway, I’m glad the government decided to restore the traditional holidays, even if that means we don’t get a week off for May 1 anymore!
比賽很有趣，但是因為又熱又擁擠，我們沒有停留太久。無論如何，我很高興政府決定恢復(fù)這個傳統(tǒng)節(jié)日，即使這意味著我們在5月1日不再有一個星期的假期！
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THE OLD VILLAGE OF BRIGHT MOON BAY
2.明月灣的老村莊
As we had three days of holidays last week, we decided to go somewhere instead of couchpotatoing the whole time. We were considering Chongming Island, in Shanghai, and Xishan Island, in Suzhou, and finally went to Xishan.
因為上周我們有三天假期，所以我們決定去找個地方逛逛，而不是整天坐在沙發(fā)上。我們考慮了上海的崇明島和蘇州的西山島，最后決定去西山島。
Xishan is the largest island in Tai Lake so it is not a palm trees and beach kind of island. Tai Lake, the third largest lake in China, is to the southwest of Suzhou and it is famous for its fish, shrimps and crabs. Getting to Xishan is very convenient as there is a bridge from the “mainland”! When C. was a child, the only way was taking the ferry.
西山島是太湖中最大的島嶼，所以它不是一個有著棕櫚樹和海灘的那種小島嶼。太湖是中國第三大湖，位于蘇州西南部，以盛產(chǎn)魚、蝦、蟹而聞名。到西山島非常方便，因為那里有一座和“大陸”相連的橋！當C.還是個孩子的時候，去那里唯一的辦法就是坐渡船。
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THE DAILY COMMUTE
3.每天上下班通勤
As I mentioned in the post about books, since October I don’t have a room in Shanghai anymore and I have to commute every day from Suzhou. That implies taking 2 trains.
正如我在關(guān)于書籍的帖子中提到的，我退掉了上海租住的公寓。所以從十月份開始，我不得不每天從蘇州到上海上班，下班再回到蘇州。這意味著每天要坐兩趟火車。
Does it sound exhausting? Well, it is actually better than I was expecting. The worst parts are getting up early in the morning and arriving home quite late! I don’t have time to do much during the week, but at least I can read on the train. A full one way journey takes 1.5 hours, which is more or less the same time it takes my colleagues who live in Pudong to arrive to our office in Jing’An.
聽起來累嗎？實際上比我想象的要好。最糟糕的是早上起得很早，晚上回家卻很晚！不過平時我沒有時間做很多事情，現(xiàn)在至少我可以在火車上看書。整個過程需要1.5個小時，差不多是我住在浦東的同事到我們靜安區(qū)辦公室的時間。
I leave home at 8 am. C. drives me to the train station, which luckily is quite close. The train departs at 8:28 but you have to arrive at least 5 minutes earlier to get in. By the way, if anyone needs to take the high speed train frequently, between Nanjing and Shanghai or any of the stations in between, you can purchase a top up card and access the train without needing to buy the actual ticket every time.
我早上8點離開家。C.開車送我到火車站，幸運的是火車站離我家很近?；疖?點28分開，但你必須至少提前5分鐘到達才能上車。順便說一下，如果有人需要經(jīng)常乘坐高鐵從南京到上?；蛘咧虚g的任何一個車站，你可以購買一張充值卡，每次都可以乘坐，而不需要購買真正的車票。
The bad part about that card is that, even though you pay the full price, you don’t get a seat. So, unless there is an empty seat, you will have to stand for 30 minutes, which is the duration of the trip from Suzhou Yuanqu station to Shanghai.
不過這張卡的缺點在于，即使你付了全價，你也沒有座位。因此，除非有一個空座位，否則你必須站上30分鐘，這是從蘇州工業(yè)園區(qū)到上海需要的時間。
If I don’t have a seat I just stand near the door of the second carriage, because it will be the closest to the exit gate in the station. When the train arrives to Shanghai it’s better to hurry up and be the first to get to the gate, because there you have to check your ticket again and everybody knows how Chinese people queue…
如果我沒有座位，我就站在第二節(jié)車廂的門附近，因為那里離車站的出口最近。當火車到達上海的時候，最好行動快一點，爭取最先到達門口，因為在那里你必須再次檢票，每個人都知道中國人排隊有多瘋狂...
There is a subway exit directly in the train station. Line 1 is always crowded, but every day at around 9:05 am there is an empty train arriving.
在火車站有一個地鐵出口，所以1號線總是很擁擠，但每天上午9:05左右都會有一列空車到站。
That’s my daily commute. But only until January, when I will start working from home!
這就是我每天上下班的路線。但只要熬到一月份，我就可以開始在家工作了！
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SUZHOU ON THE CHEAP (AND VEGETARIAN!)
4.蘇州的廉價素食
Two weeks ago, a couple of my workmates came to Suzhou to spend the weekend with us. I asked what they wanted to visit in the city, they only said “old things”. Well, we have a bunch of those in Suzhou! So I tailor-made an itinerary for them and I consciously avoided the main tourist attractions in Suzhou, like the Tiger Hill and the Humble Administrator’s garden. Why? Because they have ridiculously expensive entrance tickets. To give you an idea, in low season, the ticket to the Forbidden City in Beijing is 40 RMB. For the Humble Administrator’s garden it is 70. Are they crazy or not? Also, because my workmates are vegan, I found several vegetarian restaurants where we could go eat and then looked for cheap, nice places we could visit nearby. We saved a lot on entrance tickets and spent it all on food!
兩個星期前，我的兩個同事來蘇州和我們一起度周末。我問他們在蘇州想?yún)⒂^什么，他們說“古老的東西”。哦，我們蘇州有一大堆這樣的東西！所以我為他們量身定做了一個旅游路線，有意識地避開了蘇州的主要旅游景點，比如虎丘和拙政園。為什么？因為它們的門票貴得離譜。給你個比較，在淡季，北京紫禁城的票價是40元。而拙政園是70。他們是不是瘋了？另外，因為我的同事都是素食主義者，我找到了幾家素食餐廳，我們可以去那里吃飯，然后在附近找一些便宜的好地方去參觀。我們在門票上省了很多錢，不過全花在食物上了！
These are the places we visited:
以下是我們?nèi)⒂^的地方:
Qu garden (曲園). Address: 人民路馬醫(yī)科巷43號 (close to subway stop Leqiao). Price: free!
曲園。地址:人民路馬醫(yī)科巷43號(靠近樂橋地鐵站)。價格:免費！
I had never heard about this garden before but I found it online. It was the house of some government official from the Qing dynasty. It is a small garden, but you can see all the characteristics that the big gardens also have, albeit in a smaller size: the red wooden pavilions, the rock “mountain” with a maze, the fish pond, the calligraphy… And, I repeat, for free. And without crowds. The only visitors in the garden were a young mom with her son sitting in the garden and a bunch of old ladies rehearsing their singing in one of the pavilions. I think it’s great that they can use this garden as a meeting place for their community!
我以前從未聽說過這個園林，我是在網(wǎng)上找到的。這是清朝某個官員的房子。這是一個小園林，盡管規(guī)模較小，但你可以看到大園林所擁有的所有特征:紅色的木亭、帶迷宮的假“山”、魚池、書法...我再說一遍，是免費的。而且沒有那么擁擠的人群。當時園林里唯一的參觀者是一位年輕的母親和她的兒子，還有一群老太太在其中一個亭子里排練她們的歌曲。我認為她們能把這個園林作為她們社區(qū)的聚會場所是很棒的！
(Note: there is a bigger garden very close to this one but that is not free. It’s called Yi garden (怡園) and the ticket is 40 RMB. I have never been, but according to a friend it’s not worth it).
(注意:有一個比較大的園林離這個園林很近，但不是免費的。它叫做怡園，票價是40元。我從來沒去過，但據(jù)一個朋友說，它不值這個票價。
From Qu garden you can walk around the alleys, which are basically Suzhou’s version of Beijing’s hutongs. If you peek through the open doors you will see that many entrances have a long corridor leading to several apartments. If it’s sunny you will also probably see people eating outside or playing cards. And loads of hanging clothes, of course.
從曲園出來，你可以沿著胡同漫步，這些胡同基本上就是蘇州版的北京胡同。如果你透過敞開的門往里看，你會看到許多入口都有一條長長的走廊通向幾個公寓。如果天氣晴朗，你可能還會看到人們在戶外吃飯或打牌。當然，還有一大堆掛著的衣服。
After lunch we walked towards the Beisi Pagoda (北寺塔). It is very close to where C.’s parents live but I have never been there. This time it couldn’t be, either, as they close at 3 pm and we couldn’t get in. Isn’t 3 pm kind of early to close a tourist attraction?
午飯后，我們走著去了北寺塔。那里離C.的父母住的地方很近，但我從沒去過那里。這次也去不了，因為他們下午3點就關(guān)門，我們進不去。下午3點關(guān)門對于一個旅游勝地來說是不是有點早？
For dinner we went to my favourite vegetarian restaurant in Suzhou. I used to live very close to it but now I’m further away so I can’t go during lunch break.
晚餐我們?nèi)チ宋以谔K州最喜歡的素食餐廳。我以前住得離這里很近，但現(xiàn)在我住得離這里很遠，所以午休時間來不及去。
Surging Waves pavilion (滄浪亭). Address: 人民路44號, in front of the Temple of Confucious. Price: 15 RMB.
滄浪亭。地址:人民路44號，在孔廟前面。價格:15RMB。
On Sunday it rained. Boooh! But we still had to do something, so we went to the Surging Waves pavilion. It is one of the classical gardens that are listed by Unesco in Suzhou. It’s my favourite of the famous gardens because it’s the cheapest one. It’s quite big and has a decent sized rock mountain in the middle, many pavilions, bamboo gardens and a covered corridor going all around the place.
星期天下雨了，嗚嗚！但是我們還是得做點什么，所以我們?nèi)チ藴胬送?。它是被?lián)合國教科文組織列入名錄的蘇州古典園林之一。這是我最喜歡的著名園林，還因為它是最便宜的一個。它的面積相當大，中間有一座相當大的假山，還有很多亭子，竹園和一條環(huán)繞著它的抄手游廊。
After lunch in a Lanzhou noodles place whose boss was kind enough to prepare vegetarian dishes, we went to have a foot massage as my workmates had never tried one. The masseurs had a great time making fun of the 3 foreigners plus the Chinese who also looks foreigner.
我們在一家蘭州面館吃了午飯，老板很好心地準備了素菜。吃完飯，我們?nèi)プ隽俗惘?，因為我的同事從來沒有嘗試過。按摩師們很開心地打趣了3個外國人和那些看起來像外國人的中國人。
Shantang Street (山塘街). Subway line 2 has a stop right there, called Shantang St. Price: free!
山塘街。地鐵2號線就在那里有一個站點，叫山塘街站。價格:免費！
This is the other famous old street in Suzhou. Very revamped (it even has a Starbucks and a Family Mart with their facades imitating the traditional wooden doors) but still very pretty at night, when they turn on all the red lanterns. First time visitors always love it. If you want to get some souvenir, I suggest you have your face done in a paper cut, it’s quite unique. My workmates did it and the paper cut master had a hard time getting their foreign faces right. He said they used to charge more for foreigners, until a Chinese speaking laowai protested. But it is true that in the time it took him to do my friends, the other master did 4 or 5 Chinese people.
這是蘇州另一條著名的老街，還進行了翻新(它甚至有一個星巴克和一個家庭用品超市，它們的門面都是模仿的傳統(tǒng)的木門)，晚上所有的紅燈籠都點亮時，這里非常漂亮。第一次來這里參觀的游客總是很喜歡這里。如果你想得到一些紀念品，我建議你去買一張按照你的臉做成的剪紙，這是相當獨特的。我的同事們都這么做了，剪紙師傅費了好大勁才把他們的外國面孔弄對。他說他們過去對外國人收取更高的費用，直到一個會說中文的老外提出了抗議。但事實是， 他幫我朋友做一個用的時間，另一位師傅可以幫四五個中國人做完。
Even though we didn’t visit any of the super famous sights, my friends were very happy with their Suzhou visit. You should check these places out if you haven’t been!
雖然我們沒有參觀任何一個特別著名的經(jīng)典，但我的朋友們都對他們的蘇州之行感到非常高興。如果你沒去過這些地方，你應(yīng)該去看看！
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DISCOVERING NEW PLACES
5.我發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個新地方
I have been living in Suzhou for over 4 years now, but there are still some places that I haven’t been to. For example, I haven’t been to all of the famous Suzhou gardens, only to some of them (all of them look similar, right?). I haven’t been to Baker & Spice or Kamal’s Indian restaurant either. I could go on and on. Seriously, I don’t know what I do with my weekends. But I am trying to change!
我在蘇州已經(jīng)住了四年多了，但是還有一些地方我沒有去過。例如，我沒有把所有著名的蘇州園林都看過一遍，只去過其中一些(它們看起來都差不多，對吧？)。我也沒去過Baker&Spice或Kamal這樣的印度餐廳。還有很多，我可以一直說下去。說真的，我不知道我周末都怎么過的。但是我正在努力改變！
A few days ago we had a long weekend for the Mid-Autumn festival. It was cloudy and rainy because there was a typhoon in Fujian, but I managed to move both our asses from the sofa and we went to visit one of those parts of Suzhou that we had never been before:
幾天前的中秋節(jié)，我們度過了一個漫長的周末。由于福建有臺風，所以天氣陰沉而多雨，但我設(shè)法把我們的屁股從沙發(fā)上挪開，我們?nèi)チ颂K州的一個我們從未去過的地方:
Keep walking and you will reach a very nice park called 東園 Dongyuan, which simply means East Park, as it’s on the east side of Suzhou’s old town. There are motor boats and fishing rods to rent, dozens of cats that live there, a rose garden, the garden of some old official, a pond full of lotus… and a small amusement park!
繼續(xù)往前走，你會到達一個非常漂亮的公園，名字叫東園，意思是東方公園，因為它位于蘇州老城的東側(cè)。那里可以租到摩托艇和釣魚竿，有幾十只貓住在那里，還有一個玫瑰花園，那是一個老官員的花園，一個滿是荷花的池塘...還有一個小游樂園！
I wanted to ride in the carousel but I arrived one minute after they closed! Grrr! Well, one more reason to go back!
我想坐旋轉(zhuǎn)木馬，但是我到那里的時候，它剛剛在一分鐘前關(guān)閉了！好吧，又多了一個下次來的理由！
I really enjoyed this walk, so I will definitely come back to this park!
我真的很喜歡這次散步，所以我一定會再到這個公園來！
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SUNDAY BY THE LAKE
6.星期日在湖畔散步
It’s that time of the year again! The beginning of summer means the rainy season is here. It has been raining a lot the last couple of weeks and there were also several thunderstorms. In Chinese these days are called 梅雨季 (plum rain season) and they are a synonym of hot and humid weather. Yikes! My previous apartment was in the second floor and I would even get mold on the walls and leather chairs.
又到了每年的這個時候了！夏天的開始就意味著雨季的到來。過去幾個星期一直在下雨，還有幾場雷雨。在中國，這一段時間被稱為梅雨季，它是炎熱潮濕天氣的代名詞。我以前的公寓在二樓，我甚至會發(fā)現(xiàn)在墻上和皮椅上有發(fā)霉的跡象。
The best part about rainy days in China is that the air gets noticeably cleaner. As you know, we have a big problem with pollution here. Suzhou rarely gets to airpocalypse levels, but usually the PM2.5 index is between 100 and 150, and that is not good. The sky is not “true blue”, but a greyish shade of blue. But in the last days I even saw pink colored clouds when walking Nico at 7 pm. Nice!
在中國，下雨最大的好處是空氣明顯變得更干凈了。如你所知，我們這里的污染問題很嚴重。蘇州很少達到空氣末日的水平，但通常PM2.5指數(shù)在100到150之間，這不是件好事。天空不是“真正的藍色”，而是一種灰藍色。但是在最近幾天，我甚至在晚上7點帶著Nico散步的時候，看到了粉紅色的云彩。太棒了！
Usually it always rains on the weekend, but this morning it was sunny, the air was clean and the ground was more or less dry. We took Nico to the lake and I brought my camera. It got cloudy when we got there but it didn’t rain. Nico wanted to get in the water but she’s a coward! She only swims where there are stairs leading to the water and she can see it’s not too deep.
通常周末都會下雨，但是今天早上天氣晴朗，空氣清新，地面或多或少干了一些。我們帶著Nico去了湖邊，我還帶上了我的相機。我們到那里時天陰了起來，但沒有下雨。Nico想下水玩，但她是個膽小鬼！她只在有通向水的樓梯的地方玩水，因為她看得出那里的水不是很深。
It was nice to be able to go out today. I hope you enjoyed your Sunday too!
今天能出去玩真好。我希望你在星期天也過得很愉快！
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