Category: Suzhou Attractions

As we all know, Suzhou gardens are quite famous, but Suzhou has many other highlights for visits except gardens, ancient towns, small bridges, etc. And if you want to really understand Suzhou, visiting the Suzhou Museum will be the best choice. When you go here, you will never feel the dry grass, because it has long been blended with Suzhou’s white walls and tiles, trees, and plants, because it is a landscape and a piece of art.

Founded in 1960, the Suzhou Museum is located in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom King’s Mansion. It is the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. It is a complete set of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom historical buildings in China. In 1999, the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government invited the world Chinese architect Mr. Pei Yuming to design the new Suzhou Museum and it completed and opened on October 6, 2006.

The new museum covers an area of about 10,700 square meters. Together with a construction area of more than 19,000 square meters, and the repaired Taiping Heavenly Kingdom King’s Mansion, it features a total area of 26,500 square meters. It is a comprehensive museum integrating modern buildings, ancient architecture, and innovative landscapes.

Winter is the best carrier to come to Suzhou Museum. The light and shadow changes in black and white tones. The lines of colors, the gray elements on the black edges of the white walls, the white sky fragments separated by the outline, the gray roof reflected in the water, and even the transparent light flowing in the space, are the beauty of angular color lines. The structure extended by the triangle is the geometric lines of the building, just like Bach’s music. The basic theme is changing, and the natural and smooth geometric lines are really beautiful!

Tiger Hill’s natural scenery is absolutely excellent. From South Gate, various legends and historical related sites and literati’s calligraphy stone carvings can be seen everywhere, and there are many illustrative facilities. Especially the true “Sword Pool”, the fake “Tiger Hill” allusion, are interesting. The iconic Yunyan Temple Tower, which was built in the Five Dynasties, silently watches every visitor entering the mountain gate. The more visitors get close to the millennium ancient tower, the more you will feel the vitality of the tower. For thousands of years, the Yunyan Temple Tower has been ushered every guest who has come here. It is no wonder that Yunyan Temple has long ceased to exist, and ancient tower has always stood in the ancient city of Suzhou.

Tiger Hill is located on a small hill with woods and green grass. Walking up the avenue, you can see the scenic spots on the roadside. You can enjoy the beautiful scenery all the way. You can walk along the stairs to the Guanyin Temple, a garden, and some attractions. And there is an exhibition hall which is dedicated to the history stories of the Tiger Hill. There are many literati famous people who have been to Tiger Hill. When you reach the top of the mountain, you can see the Yunyan Temple Tower at a close distance. It can only be viewed outside and cannot enter the tower. It is a very great building, it is truly an amazing architectural accomplishment of the ancients!

After finishing your visit in Tiger Hill, you need to take a bus from the South Gate to the North Gate, so you have the opportunity to feel the forest scenery around the hillside avenue of Tiger Hill. There is a straight erected forest with a clear and wide river next to it. You can see the boat passing by on the water, which is a great enjoyment! Enjoying the beauty of the Tiger Hill and feeling the elegance of the ancient literati, you will feel Tiger Hill worth a visit!

The Tongli Ancient Town area is not large, the circumference is about 3 kilometers, and people touring there generally walk on foot. In addition, you can also pay a manpower tricycle tour. In the ancient town, there is now a Wufu water boat tour that needs to be paid for, and the route covers the ancient town and Luoxingzhou.

The entrance to Tongli Ancient Town is on the south side of the scenic spot. After entering, you can see the landscape of the small bridge and water flowing in the ancient town. The Third Bridge with unique shapes and long history is in the center of the ancient town. The town’s joint ticket now contains nine major attractions, including Tuisi Garden, Pearl Tower Garden, Songshiwu Garden, Taihu Water Conservancy Exhibition Hall, Chongbentang, Jiayintang, Gengletang, Luoxingzhou and other attractions scattered throughout the ancient town. Tongli ancient town has exquisite and small gardens, celebrities’ former residences, and special exhibition halls, you can walk to visit one by one in the ancient town. Luo Xingzhou is a small island on the east side of the ancient town, where you can burn incense and worship Buddha. It takes 20 minutes to walk from the ancient town to the pier for boat trips. Tickets for taking the boat are also included in the joint ticket.

If you want to play in Tongli Ancient Town for two days, you can stay there for one night. There are many homestays in the town. Among them, Jingyitang Inn on Fuguan Street and Enzetang Inn on Zhuxing Street are famous, which are rebuilt from old houses and the price is between 100-200 yuan/night, and you will have antique feeling when staying there. However, although the accommodation in the ancient town has its own characteristics, the facilities are not as good as the hotels outside. There are budget hotels to choose from near the West Lake Road on the east side of the ancient town.

Zhouzhuang, a traditional Jiangnan water town, has left us with both mottled white walls and black slate road. Walking on it, you can always feel the vicissitudes of history. It is indeed an old town with some years old. The traces of the ancestors left have not changed. The stone arch bridges and the clear water have not changed, the pleasant living atmosphere also has not changed. Although the commercial taste is getting stronger, the people in the ancient town try to restore everything that was once there, so that the tradition can be passed down. Being in the ancient town of Zhouzhuang is just like you are in an intangible cultural heritage. Even these old street tiles and slab-covered arch bridges are intangible cultural heritage. The 14 ancient stone bridges that were preserved are built in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. More than 60% of the houses still preserve the architectural style of the period of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the entire Zhouzhuang ancient town is a pre-selected place for world cultural heritage.

Zhouzhuang is the first water town in China. You will feel it leisure when walking slowly on the banks of the Zhouzhuang River. You can also sit on a boat and watch the two banks along the river at night. The typical bridges in the south of the Yangtze River are very beautiful. Don’t join the group, just slowly enjoy the charm there by yourself, it will be better. The large-scale water scene performance in the evening is very good. It usually starts at 19:00 or 16:30. The performance includes the waters of Jiangnan, the Four Seasons of Jiangnan and the Jiangnan folk customs, especially the last one about the water wedding custom will have interactive interactions, which is very interesting.

It is absolutely necessary to stay in the ancient town for one night, when the bustling tourists leave, it is the time to truly understand the essence of the Zhouzhuang Water Town. Especially in the early morning, after a heavy snowfall, when the sun slowly spreads to the ancient town, you will truly appreciate her unparalleled beauty.

Without viewing garden, it feels like you have never been to Suzhou. Humble Administrator Garde is very delicate in structure and architecture. The details are hidden in the meaning you don’t know. You must once again sigh the wisdom of the ancestors. Modern people are far worse than the ancestors.

Going to an experience hall in the garden, you will hear the tour guide said that there is an embroidered embroidery which is worthy 500,000 RMB. If you are curious, just follow the tour guide entering into it to have a look. Then there are some instructors who are introducing some things about the garden, and they are interesting.

The Humble Administrator’s Garden is the first of all gardens in China. It is said that other gardens are built on the basis of it. After many generations of garden owners, Wang Xianchen of the Ming Dynasty bought this land and built it, and invited the famous Wen Zhengming talented person to be responsible for the design. It is said that because his landscape painting is good, it is not surprising that you will feel the exquisiteness when visiting the garden. Although the ancients did not learn architecture design, they were so good when they transformed the encyclopedic mind into actual works.

The commentator said that you can understand it if you understand it. If you don’t know anything, you really think Humble Administrator’s Garden is just a garden. If you have no cultural knowledge here, you maybe don’t know the history behind the garden. The only thing you think about it is “nothing to go around.” If you want to have a good feeling, it is highly suggested that you spend half a day to view the charm of the garden. This is a place that requires patience, even a second visit, if you still have the opportunity to come over.

Tips: When taking photos of Humble Administrator’s Garden, in addition to avoiding the crowd, you must also learn to use the front scenery reasonably. The photos taken then can be at least hierarchical, virtual and real, full of space and dreams.

The Lingering Garden is located at No. 338, Liuyuan Road, Tumen, Suzhou. It is well-known for its exquisite architectural layout and numerous strange stones. It is also known as the Four Famous Gardens of China together with Suzhou Humble Administrator’s Garden, Beijing Summer Palace and Chengde Mountain Resort. The Lingering Garden is a large-scale classical private garden in China. It covers an area of 23,300 square meters and represents the Qing Dynasty style. The garden is famous for its exquisite architectural style. The hall is magnificent and the courtyard is full of changes. Taihu Stone is the most famous with Guanyun Peak. The architectural space is exquisitely processed, and the gardeners use various artistic techniques to form the Garden space system which is featuring the special rhythmic, and it has become an example of the world-famous architectural space art processing. The Lingering Garden is divided into four parts, the east is mainly featuring architecture, the middle is the landscape garden, the west is a large rockery between the earth and stone, and the north is the idyllic scenery.

Visitors to The Lingering Garden is not very few, the fare is 55RMB/person, you can buy on the machine via Alipay directly, but do remember to bring your ID card.

The garden is still relatively large. After entering it, when you meet the rainy weather, you will feel it more charming. In fact, it is very magical. Although the surrounding life is noisy, when you enter The Lingering Garden, you will naturally feel calm, every scene in The Lingering Garden is with a sense of quaintness in the vicissitudes of life.

Through the ivy on the wall, the raining tiles, the bamboo forest and the doors and windows, you can suddenly feel a weak connection with the times, as if you can feel the people living in the yard at that time. Feel the temperament of that era, their aesthetic philosophy of their life.

This is completely different from the feeling of the Forbidden City. You can feel the breath of life in The Lingering Garden, feel the romance at that time, like a layer of crepe, although people are not there, things are still there, they are so quiet, standing here for a hundred years.