What to See in Suzhou
Suzhou is located in the South-Eastern part of China, about an hour and a half drive West from Shanghai, in the Jiangsu province. With its 2,500 years of history, classical Chinese gardens and water features, it is a location that has a lot to offers in terms of the number and variety of tourist attractions.
As the city is situated in the Yangtze River Delta, 42 % of its surface is covered by water, which makes canals and ponds some of the central feature of what is often called the “Oriental Venice” (by the same mechanism that creates Venices all over the world, although, in this case, it was actually Marco Polo who deemed it so).
The birth of canals was a natural consequence of the geographic conditions in which the city existed and which favored such a route of transport as being cheap and effective, as well as easy to build in such a region. One such example is the Grand Canal, magnificent waterway that is the longest man-made in the world, connecting Hangzhou to South China. It was started 2000 years ago and work continued on different portions of the canal through history, with some parts from Antiquity being still operational and in use today.
The Weichang River is a rectangular canal that encircles the area in which are the most important sites, with several East-West and North-South canals linking the sides of the rectangle. Inside the rectangle, you will find many of the most well known sites in Suzhou, your must-see list for the day, including the Zhuozheng Garden (the Humble Administrator’s Garden), one of the four most famous gardens in China and the largest in Suzhou.
At Zhuozheng Garden, work to transform the site into what it is today started in the 16th century, after the garden had previously been a residence and a temple, so the garden has all the characteristics of Qing architecture, including the wide use of pavilions and small houses set throughout the garden on small islands in the middle of ponds, all interconnected with an abundance of bridges. Divided into three parts (Eastern, Middle and Western), each stands out with its own particular features and is worth a visit.
This short presentation of the beauties of Suzhou would not be complete without a short reference to the temples in Suzhou. Temples such as the Gratitude-Paying Temple or the Cold Mountain Temple stand out as historical landmarks.
Two more things not to be missed in Suzhou: its ancient pagodas and a trip to one of the nearby water towns.