DISTANCE: 6km (3.7 miles), plus taxis
TIME: A full day
START: Pan Pacific Suzhou
END: Suzhou Silk Museum
POINTS TO NOTE: The easiest and most efficient way to get to Suzhou is on the high-speed train from Shanghai, which takes just 30 minutes. The genius of Suzhou’s classical gardens is that every season reveals something different. Avoid the crowds and come during winter, when the gardens take on a stark beauty.
The ancient city of Suzhou, founded in 600 BC, flourished with the completion of the Grand Canal and neighbouring Hangzhou’s emergence as the imperial capital. Silk production thrived, and imperial officials laid out classical gardens – almost 200 during Suzhou’s peak. The 70 remaining gardens are now a World Heritage site and form the soul of the city – each has its own distinct personality and offers a microcosm of the world, perfectly balanced in terms of harmony, proportion and variety.
In the Master of Nets Garden
Alamy
Take an early train from Shanghai and then a taxi to the Pan Pacific Suzhou, see 1, for breakfast (Suzhou Wugong Zhi Taipingyang Jiudian); tuck into the impressive buffet spread overlooking classical gardens and the evocative Ruigang Pagoda.
Chinese traditional river street in Suzhou
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City sights
Head west from the Pan Pacific entrance, then south at the Dong Dajie intersection to reach the Gusu Garden 1 [map] (Gusu Yuan; 1 Dong Dajie; 7.30am–5pm; charge). Stroll through the landscaped grounds and follow the signs to the Five Gate Bridge (Wumen Qiao), Suzhou’s tallest bridge, for the age-old view of boats and barges on the canal.
Directly across the main road is the Ruigang Pagoda (Ruigang Ta), a seven-storey, 37m (121ft) octagonal brick-and-timber pagoda that was first built in AD 1004.
Pan Gate (Panmen), the only remaining stretch of Suzhou’s third-century city wall, is a short walk southwest. Climb up the 300m (980ft) of original city wall for a view of the arched bridges below.
A classical garden
Take a taxi northeast to Master of the Nets Garden 2 [map] (Wangshi Yuan; daily 7.30am–5.30pm (winter), 7.30am–10pm (summer); charge, evening performances additional fee). The name refers to the ambition of its retired court official owner, who longed to be a fisherman. The intimate garden’s charm comes from its delicate, scaled-down courtyards, pavilions and rockeries. Some of Suzhou’s most exquisite antique furniture is here, notably in the Peony Study, which has been replicated at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. From mid-March to mid-November, the garden is the setting for traditional performances of opera, music and dance. If you’re there on a moonlit night, don’t miss the Moon Watching Pavilion, where you can see the moon thrice over: in the sky, in the pond and in a mirror.
North to Pingjiang Lu
From Master of the Nets, walk north along Fenghuang Jie, turn right on Ganjiang Dong Lu – passing the twin pagodas of Shuang Ta – to reach Pingjiang Lu, a lovely historic cobbled stretch along a willow-lined canal. The traditional buildings lining the street now house a range of shops, cafés, hotels and restaurants.
Follow the signs to the Pingtan Museum (Pingtan Bowuguan; daily 8.30am–noon, 1.30–3.30pm; free), just east off Pingjiang Lu, where Suzhou’s ancient oral storytelling art comes alive. Performances are accompanied by Chinese string instruments – you don’t need to understand the narrative to enjoy its beauty.
Directly next door is the Kunqu Opera Museum (Kunqu Bowuguan; 14 Zhongzhang Jia Xiang; daily 8.30am–4.30pm; free), which chronicles the 600-year-old Chinese opera tradition from the town of Kunshan, near Suzhou. Kunqu opera is still performed here, in a Ming Dynasty building with a stunning wooden dome. Across the courtyard, a modern building serves as a second stage and houses a display of costumes, masks, musical instruments and an exhibition on the opera’s history and key characters.
Head west two blocks, crossing Lindun Lu, to Guanqian Jie, another historic street, for lunch at Suzhou’s famous Song He Lou, see 2, renowned for its local delicacies.
Humble Administrator’s Garden
After lunch, walk north on Pishi Jie then east on Xibei Jie and Dongbei Jie to reach the Humble Administrator’s Garden 3 [map] (Zhuozheng Yuan; 178 Dongbei Jie; daily 7.30am–5pm, 7.30am–5.30pm Mar–mid-Nov; charge, ticket includes entry to the Garden Museum). The garden is Suzhou’s largest, and its name comes from a Jin Dynasty poem: ‘Cultivating a garden is the work of a humble man’. But this 4-hectare (10-acre) garden is far from a humble undertaking. Laid out by retired Ming imperial official Wang Xianchen in 1513, the three main areas are linked by pools and ponds of varying sizes. Twisting rock-lined paths burst open on to a classical landscape: an expansive lotus pond with a view of the North Temple Pagoda, the pond crossed by zigzag bridges and pavilions perched on hillsides and in hollows.
Follow the signs to the Garden Museum. The four exhibition halls tell the story of the classical garden in China and feature a very interesting section on garden construction.
A cannon used by Taiping Tianguo rebels, Suzhou Museum
David Shen Kai/Apa Publications
The Humble Administrator’s Garden
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Chinese gardens
The classical Chinese garden is a complex, nuanced thing. In the pavilions, rockeries, fish pools, delicate blossoms and gnarled trees and shrubs are expressions of Chinese poetry, philosophy and art – each garden is supposed to be a microcosm of the world. The pine trees, for instance, symbolise long life, the goldfish money, the peony blooms nobility. Rocks and ponds always feature prominently – and no wonder. After all, the Chinese word for landscape is shanshui – literally, mountain water.
Suzhou Museum
Exit the museum on Dongbei Jie and head west. At the end of the block is the impressive Suzhou Museum 4 [map] (Suzhou Bowuguan; 204 Dongbei Lu; Tue–Sun 9am–5pm, no admission after 4pm; free). The design by Chinese-American architect IM Pei, whose ancestors owned Lion Grove Garden, drew on the ancient city for inspiration. The US$40 million building is a spectacular Modernist version of a traditional Suzhou house, with plenty of glass and light, plus traditional touches such as a Chinese garden and footbridge. The museum features a collection of artefacts from early Suzhou.
Other Suzhou sights
From the museum, head west on Xibei Jie to the intersection with Renmin Lu and North Temple Pagoda 5 [map] (Beisi Ta; 652 Renmin Lu; daily 7.45am–6pm; charge). This 76m (250ft) mustard-and-red structure on the site of Wu Kingdom ruler Sun Quan’s childhood home was first built during the third century and rebuilt in the 16th century. A climb to its summit offers spectacular views of the surrounding area – and shows how fast Suzhou is changing.
Exhibit at the Suzhou Silk Museum
David Shen Kai/Apa Publications
Cross Renmin Lu to the Suzhou Silk Museum 6 [map] (Suzhou Sichou Bowuguan; daily 9am–4.30pm; charge), which recounts the history of silk in China. Especially interesting are the rare antique silk pieces and the section on sericulture: one room has large woven pans holding wriggling silkworms (in season) feasting on mulberry leaves, while on another shelf silk cocoons sit neatly in rows. Weavers demonstrate how young girls ruined their hands in the old days by plunging them into boiling water to separate the cocoon threads into single strands.
New Suzhou has expanded on either side of the Old Town. Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), a cooperation between the Chinese and Singaporean governments, fans out to the east around Jinji Lake and is home to high-end hotels, restaurants and nightlife, especially in the lakeside Ligongdi district, filled with whitewashed, heritage-style buildings and arched bridges.
Food and Drink
1 Pan Pacific Suzhou
Suzhou Wugong Zhi Taipingyang Jiudian; 259 Xinshi Lu; tel: 512 6510 3388; www.panpacific.com/suzhou; breakfast daily 6.30–10am; $$
The Pan Pacific buffet breakfast offers an impressive array of Asian and Western food, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the hotel’s gorgeous classical garden.
2 Song He Lou (Pine and Crane Restaurant)
72 Taijian Nong; tel: 512 6727 2285; daily 11am–1.30pm, 5–8.30pm; $$
Suzhou’s most famous restaurant, where Emperor Qianlong is said to have dined, is a good place to sample Suzhou specialities such as squirrel Mandarin fish, crystal shrimp, Gusu marinated duck, braised river eel and more. The restaurant gets crowded with tourist groups at lunchtime, so come early (11am) or late (1pm).