Suzhou

Highlights

• Humble Administrator's Garden (UNESCO World Heritage)
• Master of the Nets Garden
• Tiger Hill Pagoda
• Pingjiang Road canal street
• Suzhou Museum (I. M. Pei building)
• Tongli Water Town (day trip)

Getting Around

Suzhou is best reached by high-speed rail from Shanghai Hongqiao or Shanghai Hongqiao — the G-train covers the 84 km journey in just 25 minutes, making Suzhou a very easy day trip. It is also well connected to Nanjing in about 1 hour and to Hangzhou in about 1.5 hours. Suzhou North station (high-speed) is the main arrival point; metro Line 4 connects it to the historic gardens district. There is no major international airport in Suzhou itself.

Food

Suzhou cuisine is the sweetest and most delicate branch of Jiangnan cooking — fish and crab from the region's lakes are the star ingredients. Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish (songshujianyu) is the showpiece dish: deep-fried in a crisp lattice and doused in a tangy sweet-and-sour sauce. Suzhou-style noodles served in a rich pork-bone broth topped with braised meat or freshwater shrimp are the preferred breakfast. The old teahouses along Pingjiang Road serve dim-sum-style pastries and freshly brewed Biluochun green tea.

Stay

The best base is the historic district around Pingjiang Road and the garden quarter, where boutique hotels in converted Ming and Qing courtyard buildings offer canal views. Newer business hotels cluster near Suzhou North station and the industrial park (SIP) to the east. Suzhou is small enough that most gardens are reachable by bicycle or taxi from anywhere in the old town.

Budget