After two exhilarating nights in Hangzhou, #123 and I journeyed by train to the city of Suzhou. There was a moment for excitement for an Untappd nerd like me. I love a dining car beer at 300km and my Lowen White was a unique. The nerdy bit was the location was the actual train. Cool.
Suzhou is known as the Venice of the East because of its extensive canal system. And that is not a hollow call by the Suzhou Travel Board. The term was coined by the legendary Venetian, Marco Polo. It is also the home of exotically named gardens like the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the Master of the Nets. I’d chosen a hotel in the heart of old Suzhou, but after making the booking I discovered that Suzhou has hit the accelerator button on insane buildings and Jinji Lake was the place to be in the evening.
After a solid day of canal walking, garden visiting and Suzhou eating we were thirsty. Twin Tails is a Suzhou based craft brewery run by two Americans. They’d recently opened a taproom in the Suzhou Industral Park district which is close to the Gate of the Orient building and Suzhou Centre Mall.
#123 has been very patient on this trip and most of our sorties went to plan. Finding the Twin Tails SIP taproom almost broke #123. I blame Twin Tails in part – how hard is it to put an address for the venue on the website or insta? Not many travel with WeChat and Baidu which makes finding things easier. Credit to the concierge at the Crowne Plaza for working it out. It is a modest sized taproom in an apartment complex that looks to be well patronised by expats. We dragged our exhausted bodies (31 degrees) across the threshold. The beers are good when they are finally poured. Not sure if it was incompetence or gas setting issues, but the barman didn’t fill us with confidence. White Dragon Wheat is a good beer. There are two much bigger venues on East Tai Lake at Wujian, which are more established.
We’d been given a tip about the sunset on Jinji Lake best viewed from the Western shore of Jinji Lake, just near the huge and modern Culture Arts Centre. If only our barman had poured our beers faster. We literally missed the sunset by 30 seconds.
Our spirits picked up when in the true meaning of the word Fortuitous™ was demonstrated by the discovery of a Boxing Cat Brewing outlet on the shore of Jinji Lake.
The location couldn’t be much better to be honest. You can see the Gate of the Orient light up with its futuristic display as you sip on a Flipping Mango Hazy IPA. You can look across at Linglongdao Island rotate through a rainbow of colours.
There’s plenty of room inside, but with such a cracking light show, outside is the place to be. The world’s 21st tallest building also looms over the north eastern shore of Jinji Lake and you get a good view as you approach Boxing Cat.
Boxing Cat Brewery was one of the earliest craft breweries in China, starting off in 2008 in Shanghai. Somewhere in the mid teens they were taken over by Anheuser Busch. That has clearly worked for them as they have multiple outlets in Shanghai, a pop-up venue in Beijing and now Suzhou.
One last beer experience in Suzhou can be had along Pingjiang Road, one of Suzhou’s popular canal roads. Still not entirely sure of the provenance of this beer, but there’s nothing better crushing a 980ml can of Meeting by Chance alongside a canal.
I knew Suzhou would be good. It is wonderful to have one’s expectations exceeded.
back of the ferry 