Suzhou 苏州苏州

A red door with 福 on both leaves, under black tiles.

A long white wall down a lane at dusk.

苏州 written on a wall beneath paper parasols on Pingjiang Road.

A plaque for Jingsi Academy on a white wall.

A still canal mirroring the houses above it.

A small dog standing guard in the lane.

A quiet lane of white walls under a grey sky.

A black door under the Jingsi Academy plaque.

Red lanterns and a crowded little shop window.

Groceries carried home past white walls.

A weathered two-storey house on Shiquan Street.

Two rows of houses leaning over a narrow canal.

A weathered black door, 福 still bright on it.

A narrow canal between white houses on a grey day.

Back lanes and air conditioners above the water.

Ivy and power lines over a back lane.

Ivy taking over an old wall.

A green archway of vines over an old lane.

A red door with brass rings.

A row of white houses with flying eaves.

Plane trees arching over Shizi Street.

A red door set in a stone frame, a house number above.

Lantern-lit shopfronts on Shiquan Street.

A lattice window and a wooden door in a long white wall.

A carved stone panel of scrolling flowers.

Bare vines reaching up past the wires.

A man carrying his shopping home down a narrow lane.

A quiet corner of Shiquan Street, a bicycle by the wall.

A scooter gliding down Shizi Street under the plane trees.

A green canal between white walls, quiet as a lane.

A lit window in a dark brick wall.

A cup of milk tea with 苏州 on it.

A street lamp and climbing vines on an old house.

A narrow canal between white houses.

A lattice window in a white wall above a blue stripe.

Evening on Shiquan Street, plane trees and the first lamps.

A lantern-lit doorway on Shiquan Street.

A busy street corner on Shiquan Street.

A shaded lane on Shizi Street, a scooter passing.

Upturned eaves along a row of white houses.

Red lanterns and café windows on Shiquan Street at night.

A boat moored in a quiet canal.

A blue tarp and tangled wires against the grey.

An archway of green leading into a quiet lane.

A round window and red doors on Pingjiang Road, reflected in the canal.

A carved brick window on Pingjiang Road, worn soft by the years.

A rainbow of light leak over Pingjiang Road's green canal.

Pingjiang Road: whitewashed houses and red doors, a summer afternoon years earlier.

Vines trailing over an old pergola on Pingjiang Road.

Pingjiang Road's white houses doubled in the canal.

苏州 in brush on an old wall, vines falling from above.

A tea lantern glowing in a dark lane off Pingjiang Road.

Still water by Taihu Lake at sunset, a stone bridge beyond.

Pingjiang Road's white houses and round windows over still water.

Xuanmiao Temple's golden eaves glowing at night.

An old shopfront on Shilu glowing under its dark eaves.

佛 written large on a yellow temple wall.

Lotus leaves crowding the summer pond.

A strip of Suzhou street frames, like a contact sheet.

A film strip of Suzhou lanes, frame after frame.

A film strip of red doors and white walls.

A film strip of green lanes and white walls.

A long strip of film frames from Suzhou's streets.

Panmen's gate tower over the moat, where I grew up.

Moat and bridges lit up below Panmen at night.

Panmen's gate tower lit gold at night, seen from above.

Panmen at night from above, the city of my childhood lit up.

The city from above Panmen at night, streets running with light.

The city lights stretching out from Panmen at night.

Looking straight up into the Suzhou Museum's diamond skylight.

A square of soft light in the Suzhou Museum ceiling.

The Suzhou Museum's timber ceiling, folding into the light.

The Gate of the Orient at dusk, lit blue over Jinji Lake.

A lane of lanterns at Shengjiaxu, and one small red smile in the dark.

Two paper lanterns against a white wall, one warm, one pale.

Rainbow fish lanterns swimming through the dark.

A school of silk goldfish swimming between the lanterns.

Three paper lanterns at three heights of warm light.

A red palace lantern carried high above the Shangyuan crowd.

The pagoda lit in gold, standing over its own reflection.

Rainbow carp leaping across a sky of paper moons.

Two rows of lanterns lighting the stone steps up to the bridge.

Lantern colours dissolving into the canal.

Lantern light doubled in the canal under a bridge at Shengjiaxu.

Round lanterns above a silk carp.

Lanterns painted with 囍, glowing above the crowd.

Double-happiness lanterns, close enough to touch.

A golden dome of lanterns, and its twin in the water.

A pavilion made of light, sparks drifting around it.

Lanterns climbing the lane, one step of light at a time.

Paper lanterns climbing a narrow lane, orange and pale blue, into the dark.

Lanterns hung at odd heights, like notes on a stave.

A blue lantern dragon floating on the canal.

A blue dragon lantern asleep on the dark water.

苏州, brushed onto a white wall at Algebra Café.

苏州 written on a white wall, a red scooter parked beneath.

“We love this city so much” — a sign for Gusu.

“We love this city so much” — Gusu, on a pale sign.

Yipu Garden's pond, white magnolia doubled in still water.

Magnolia buds opening over the garden pond.

White magnolia against a dark lattice window.

A white gable and new green leaves at Yipu.

Late sun on a lattice window.

Magnolia above the curve of a garden roof.

Blossom framed by a carved garden window.

A garden seen through an octagonal window.

Cream magnolia petals against a soft blue sky.

Pink magnolia leaning out from behind the eaves.

Dark branches and pink magnolia, drawn like ink.

A magnolia in full bloom above a whitewashed wall.

A flying roof corner and plum blossom at the Master of the Nets Garden.

Plum blossom so thick the sky turns pink.

A magnolia in full bloom above a white wall.

Camellias opening one after another in the garden shade.

Curved gables and a pond holding the evening still.

Magnolia leaning over the eaves of the Master of the Nets Garden.

A crown of white magnolia over Yipu's tiled roof.

Magnolia and a white gable cutting the blue sky.

A few buds of wintersweet, almost lost in the blue.

Late sun on magnolia beside a dark pavilion.

Pink magnolia seen through a carved stone window.

White magnolia piled up like cloud above the roof.

A web of dark branches carrying pink blossom.

Magnolia framed by a dark roof angle, like a window cut in the sky.

Two magnolia trees rising above a long dark wall.

Magnolia, white walls and old tiles in late light.

Looking up through magnolia from beneath the eaves.

Bare vines tracing a weathered garden gable.

Magnolia petals scattered across the blue like stars.

White magnolia over a wall carved with lattice.

A curved gable in warm light, magnolia in silhouette.

A young magnolia reaching up from behind the wall.

Old rooftops below, the Gate of the Orient far on the horizon.

Flying eaves around a stone-paved garden courtyard.

Lotus leaves filling the garden pond in summer.

A lake rock rising out of a garden in bloom.

An autumn garden path under a canopy of orange.

A duck afloat on still garden water.

A duck standing on a rock in the garden pond.

A crumbling garden wall half-swallowed by green.

Maple leaves at every shade between green and red.

Autumn branches over a garden wall and canal.

A long white garden wall above the canal, maples turning.

A garden pond edged with lake rocks, the first maples turning.

A garden ginkgo turning gold above the lake rocks.

An old garden tree turning gold under a grey sky.

A tall lake rock standing guard over the garden.

An autumn garden under orange trees and a grey sky.

A gnarled branch of autumn leaves against a pale sky.

Red maples around a garden pond, autumn in full.

The Twin Pagodas rising out of cherry blossom.

Cherry blossom and two lit lanterns on Shizi Street at dusk.

A street lamp lit early, the blossom leaning toward it.

A tree so full of blossom it hides the pagoda.

A pagoda finial and a curled roof ridge, blossom in between.

Wintersweet in focus, the pagoda melting behind it.

The pagoda rising over blossom and a curled roof ridge.

Magnolia climbing past the pagoda's red storeys.

Blossom in a dark window frame, the pagoda's tip just visible.

Xiyuan Temple's ochre wall and a dragon on the ridge.

Blossom spilling out from under the dark eaves.

Pink magnolia lit against the blue hour on Shizi Street.

A lantern switching on above white magnolia.

Half blossom, half shadow: a wall cuts the picture in two.

The pagoda's spire above a sea of white blossom and old tiles.

White magnolia against a clear sky in the Master of the Nets Garden.

The pagoda’s spire beside a trunk heavy with blossom.

Blossom seen from inside, through a dark window frame.

The pagoda's eaves, close up, wearing spring.

Blossom framing every storey of the pagoda.

Magnolia glowing under a street lamp after dark.

The pagoda glimpsed through a canopy of blossom.

The pagoda’s eaves through a veil of white blossom.

Two blossoming trees, and the pagoda between them.

Bare plum branches against the red wall of Wujiang's Confucian temple.

Branch shadows sliding across the red wall.

A carved round window set in the red wall of Wujiang's Confucian temple.

Plum blossom sketched across an empty blue sky.

Magnolia rising alone into the blue.

Qili Shantang — seven li of old street, written in brush on the wall.

One red camellia glowing in the shade at Tiger Hill.

Shantang Street in late light, red lanterns strung along the canal.

February orchids carpeting the ground at Tiger Hill.

Blossom spilling over a curved roof at the Master of the Nets Garden.

Camellias glimpsed through a lattice window at Tiger Hill.

An old brick pagoda above a garden wall.

A magnolia tree in full bloom over Yipu's roofline.

A single branch of plum, written across the sky.

February orchids, Mum's favourite, in the low spring light.

February orchids — Mum’s favourite flower.

Plum blossom on fine dark twigs, almost weightless.

Whitewashed gables and red lanterns along the water.

A cat asleep on a warm wall at Xiyuan Temple.

Rapeseed flowers by East Taihu Lake, a field of yellow.

Rapeseed standing tall against the spring sky.

Rapeseed in flower, the first yellow of spring.

Red lanterns and a stone bridge reflected in the water.

Washing at the canal steps in a red coat.

Fireworks bursting quietly in the night sky.

Xueshi Street in the rain.

Two cats napping on a terrazzo step.

Two fluffy cats exploring the terrazzo at Lindu Nuancun.

The cats again, one keeping watch, one turning to look.

An old wall of stacked tiles and jars.

A poem painted on a whitewashed wall at Lindu Nuancun.

An old wall built from stacked tiles and clay jars.

A long bridge across the water at Tongli, from above.

An old street clock in Tongli, framed in green.

Tongli from above: black roofs around a zigzag bridge.

Tongli's grey rooftops all the way to the lake.

Tongli's rooftops and fish ponds stretching to the horizon.

Tongli's wetlands, wrapped all the way round in one panorama.

A pavilion on the hill, framed by early blossom by Taihu Lake.

Plum blossom in pink and white across the hills by Taihu Lake.

Sunset over Taihu Lake, a bare tree leaning into the light.

Shantang Street's canal at night, lanterns on both banks.

Shantang Street's canal, a red-roofed boat drifting past the lanterns.

A stone guardian among red flowers on Shantang Street.

Shantang Street's stone paving and red lanterns on an ordinary afternoon.

A stone figure grinning on Shantang Street.

A boat sliding down the canal at Shantang Street.

Shantang Street glowing under a night sky.

Red lanterns and their reflections on Shantang Street's dark canal.

Under a bridge on Shantang Street, lantern light on the canal.

Shantang Street at night, lanterns burning red along the water.

A clear green canal by Shantang Street, white walls on both banks.

Autumn trees burning red over a mirror of water.

Golden ginkgo between the houses under a hard blue sky.

Golden ginkgo branches spread across a deep blue sky.

Ginkgo branches spread like a map across the sky.

Ginkgo gold and maple red over the temple roof at the Twin Pagodas.

Red maple overhead at Dinghui Temple.

Maple blazing red against a white sky at Dinghui Temple.

A ceiling of red maple leaves at Dinghui Temple.

A ginkgo blazing gold beside the Twin Pagodas.

Ginkgo leaves backlit into pure gold.

A canopy of ginkgo gold over the temple roof.

Sunlight through a golden canopy at the Twin Pagodas.

Ginkgo leaves lit gold above a temple roof.

Ginkgo leaves turning to gold against a bright sky.

Ginkgo leaves glowing against a white autumn sky.

One red leaf held up against a ginkgo turned gold.

Ginkgo gold and maple red at Dinghui Temple.

Red maple hanging over the water, a reflection underneath.

A ginkgo turned completely gold, looking straight up.

The Suzhou Museum’s white rooflines in late sun, against a deep blue sky.

The Suzhou Museum’s white geometry against a blue sky.

The Suzhou Museum's geometry glowing pink at dusk.

Museum rooflines stacked like a mountain painting.

Red lanterns scattered through the dark like embers.

One big red lantern among many small ones.

The Gate of the Orient across Jinji Lake, after dark.

Years written in tall red banners down a stairway.