New Zhou

Zhou means city in Chinese and visiting Suzhou it certainly feels like a new city. I lived here 8/9 years ago and most of it looked like yesterdays image, most of the cars were taxis, commuting rush hour involved millions of bikes hitting the road rain or shine.
Now the lake construction has finished and most if the place resembles Manhattan. A new Suzhou subway has spring up from nowhere (Shanghai subway has gone from 2 lines to 18!) and there are the lights! Its Christmas every day here.
This is a place called Time Square. The former downtown area was just 2km literally from old city wall to old city wall and once you went too far, you hit countryside. Now it is closer to 8kms and merges with the suburbs of Shanghai. I counted at least 200 skyscrapers above 30 floors that have gone up, with more on the way. As you can see, this area had an animated ceiling with dragons fighting. They don't do things by halves the Chinese.