Suzhou tourist information
Suzhou was named Wu in the ancient times. First built in 514B.C., the city has a rich history of 2,500 years. The old city has generally retained the unique characteristics of the past. We can see its double-chessboard layout in which "the streets and rivers go side by side, while the water and land routes run in parallel"; We can also see its "3 longitudinal. 3 horizontal and one ring like" river course; its small bridges over slowly flowing waters: its "red brick walls with black tiled roofs" and its "historical interests and well-known gardens". Historically this is a remarkable place rich in outstanding talents and natural resources. The city is praised as "the earthly heaven" for its fully developed traditional culture and its scenic gardens.
Called Su for short, Suzhou is located in the center of the Yangtze Delta. Its geographic position is 3047-3202north latitude, 11955-12120 east longitude Adjoining Shanghai City to the east, Wuxi City to the west, Zhejiang Province to the south and facing the Yangtze River to the north in covers an area of 8,488.42 square kilometers, 8.27% of the whole province. The city proper covers 392 square kilometers, among which 74 square kilometers is the newly added district of the city, 14.2 square kilometers is the old city. With a low flat terrain, the plain in Suzhou occupies 54% of the whole area. Suzhou is 4 meters above the sea level on average, with low-lying land in the southeast, and hills in the southwest. The highest position of the whole city is the main peak of Qionglong Mountain in Wu County, which is about 351.7 meters high. Suzhou has a vast number of ponds and streams. The Grand Canal flows from its north to south, with rivers like Wangyu, Loujiang and Taipu connecting its east and west. Dotting in this chessboard are lakes like Yangcheng, Kuncheng and Dianshan. 90% of the Taihu Lake is within the territory of Suzhou. The city is the famous land of waters and rivers in Jiangnan or the south of Yangtze River with 42.5% of the whole area covered with water. Praised as "the Oriental Venice", the old Suzhou city now boasts 35 kilometers of rivers and 168 bridges.
Geographically, Suzhou is advantageously located at the northern edge of the subtropical zone. It has a clear distinction of 4 seasons in a year. With a yearly average temperature of 16 degree centigrade, and a yearly
Suzhou is situated on the shore of Taihu Lake. With its vastness of water, Taihu Lake has a length of 400km along its straight western bank. The eastern bank, under Suzhou's jurisdiction, provides us with a multi-level and multi-layer natural scenery by its roundabout river courses and their crisscrossing with the bays, is lands and mountains. In the south of the Yangtze River, the clear distinction of the four seasons, together with the moist climate, the fertile soil and the terrain of lakes and hills, offers a favorite condition for the growth of the lush green woods. It's incredible that we can find so many "retreats away from the world" that are hidden in the thickly-populated and booming areas of Jiangnan or the south of the Yangtze River.
Since the reform and opening up, under the direction of Deng Xiaoping's theory and the Party's basic guidelines, under the leadership of Jiangsu Provincial Government and Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPC, the people of Suzhou have earnestly carried out a series of policies enacted by the Party's Central Committee and the State Council. Great changes have taken place in both social and economic aspects, leading to the upgrade of the people's living standards. During the 20 years from 1979 to 1999, its GDP has risen from 3.2 billion yuan to 125 billion yuan, increased by 20% per year on average. The financial income rose from 830 million yuan to 8.76 billion yuan, 12.5% up annually. Wages of workers rose from 514 yuan to 8,937 yuan, increased by 15.3% per year on average. The net income of farmers rose from 204 yuan to 5,089 yuan, a yearly 17.4% increase on average. The controllable income of the people in the city rose from 455 yuan in 1981 to 7,812 yuan, an average increase of 18.2% per year. In 1998, Suzhou's GDP ranked the first among the cities at prefectual level and the 7th among the major and middle-sized cities. The six cities ahead are Shangshai, Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen. The six county-level cities in Suzhou District have all been on the list of top 100 economically developed counties across the country.
Being the source land of Wu Culture, Suzhou plays an important role in the national cultural history, where great names in history appeared one after another and schools of art had hundreds of highlights. Wumen Fine Arts School is the one that forcibly rules the national fine arts circle, represented by Wumen Fours of Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin and Qiu Ying, whose poems, calligraphy, and paintings might be named as "3 Incredibilities of Wumen". Nowadays, in Suzhou fine arts circle, promising young painters converge in great numbers. They not only inherit traditional styles of Yuan hermitic painters, but also learn from all predecessors, extensively absorb everyone's strong points, and combine them into their own new styles, thus to make Wumen Fine Arts School develop up till today and prosper all the time in the fine arts circle. Suzhou's Woodcutting New Year Picture from the Peach Blossom Castle are very popular with their rich contents, lively plots, and their unique art style of perfect images and bright colors. Suzhou traditional Chinese operas show a flourishing scene of prosperity and it is from here that Kun Opera, named as "King of Chinese Operas", originated. The stage performance of Kun Opera are exquisite and its "dancing and singing' are extremely expressive of emotions. Suzhou Ping Tan has become one of the national Top 4 Operas, using the local dialect as its performance language, and impressing the audience through forms of storytelling and singing to the accompaniment of stringed instruments. Jiangnan Sizhu, a form of music played with traditional stringed and woodwind instruments is simple and flexible in its form, graceful and fluent in its melody, elegant and fresh in its style, and it is enriched with strong color of the south. Wu Ge is a treasure-house extremely full of Suzhou folk literature, represented by local "Boat Songs", "Field Songs" and "Mountain Songs", Wu Ge is a folk art form with an extremely strong river village sentiment, which can be both chanted and sung. Suzhou also possesses a reputation as "City of Oriental Museum". The museums in Suzhou are small in scale, various in categories, rich in local characteristics and strong in specialty. There are more than 10 museums in Suzhou today, such as Suzhou Museum exhibiting Suzhou history, Folk Custom Museum exhibiting Suzhou folk customs, Tablet Museum exhibiting tablet culture, Embroidery Museum exhibiting embroidery history, Traditional Opera Museum exhibiting the history and culture of local traditional operas, Coin Museum exhibiting com history, silk Museum exhibiting ancient and present silk, the life cycle of silkworm and demonstration of silk-processing, Gardens Museum exhibiting the art of garden design and construction, and Buddhism Museum exhibiting Buddhist culture.
by China National Tourism Administration
Suzhou aerial map
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