moondog

I agree that the day trip to suzhou makes a great deal of sense for anyone staying near the train station. That having been said, if I wanted to optimize my logistics, I would kuaidi my big luggage directly to the Hangzhou hotel, and spend a night in suzhou on the way to hangzhou. In fact, I would still kuaidi the bags even if going directly to hangzhou (train travel is infinitely better if you don't have to deal with bags) .

The suzhou-hangzhou trains might pass through the Shanghai municipality, but they don't necessarily stop in Shanghai, and even if they do the total trip is still around 1.5 hours.