Holiday in Suzhou

About Suzhou

Suzhou is known as the "Venice of the East" — and although this comparison is made for a dozen Asian cities, it is nowhere more fitting than here. The 6.7 million city in Jiangsu Province, just 30 minutes by high-speed train from Shanghai, is crisscrossed by a network of canals, along which whitewashed houses with curved roofs stand and arched stone bridges span the waterways. But Suzhou's true glory lies in its Classical Gardens — nine of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites and together represent the most complete example of Chinese garden art that exists. The Humble Administrator Garden (Zhuozheng Yuan), the largest and most famous, is a masterpiece of water, stone, plants, and architecture: pavilions reflect in lotus ponds, rock formations evoke mountain landscapes, and every viewpoint is deliberately composed like a painting. The Lingering Garden impresses with its rock art, while the Master of the Nets Garden is known for its miniature perfection. For centuries, Suzhou was China's center of silk production, and the Silk Museum documents this 5,000-year-old tradition from caterpillar to finished brocade. Pingjiang Road, a restored canal alley, connects historic Suzhou with the modern: tea houses, craft shops, and small museums line the waterway, where one can experience the atmosphere of the Song Dynasty by boat or on foot. Outside the center, Tiger Hill (Huqiu) surprises with its leaning pagoda — the "Leaning Tower of China" — and the Suzhou Industrial Park at Jinji Lake shows another side of the city: skyscrapers, a giant Ferris wheel, and a futuristic skyline that proves Suzhou effortlessly combines tradition and modernity.