Suzhou

Cold Mountain Temple

寒山寺 Hanshan Si

Established in the Liang dynasty (502-557 AD), most of the buildings date from the Tang Dynasty except for the five-storey pagoda which was built later.

Ding Hui Temple

Dinghui Si

A temple on the site of a Tang Dynasty temple. Little more than two huge 300-year-old Ginkgo trees and some stone pillar bases remain from the original complex after it was demolished and a factory built atop in 1949.

Free

Dusanzhen

杜三珍 dùsānzhēn

One of the most famous purveyors of Suzhou-style cold braised duck. Takeaways only.

Garden of Pleasure (Pleasence)

Yi Yuan 怡园

Very small garden in the heart of downtown. Good place to have a cup of green tea. Usually visited by lots of local elderly people.

Guanqian Jie

Mainly a general-purpose shopping street similar to what one might find in any city, but does have some upmarket shops for silks and other tourist items

Ligongdi

李公堤

Li Gong Di is a 1400-meter causeway across Jinji Lake, the largest inner-city lake in China; it was built during the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1874-1908). Some areas near it are being heavily developed. There are metro stations: Ligongdi South on line 5 near the middle of the lake, and Ligondi West on line 3 on the SIP side.

Lion Grove Garden

Lion Forest Garden, Shi Zi Lin 狮子林

Has an incredible collection of pitted, eroded rocks that were greatly appreciated by classical Chinese scholars. It was originally part of a Buddhist monastery. The gardens are a reminder of the Buddhist story of the lions. The layout of the garden follows many twists and turns. It is easy to get quite lost in these winding paths.

Closed · opens 7:30 am·¥40, ¥30 off-season

North Temple Pagoda

Beisi Ta

Viewable from the train station, the peak of the pagoda is Suzhou's most famous. A garden and temples are on the grounds.

¥25

Panmen city gate

盘门

This gate is renowned for its unique structure as a combined water and land gate. It was built as a gate in a city wall built in 514 BCE, but the present structure is from a 14th century rebuild. The remaining wall is 300 m long and 5 m high. Visiting Pan Men includes access to a large and rather lovely garden with ponds and pavilions (feed the koi for ¥2), a boat ride, the city water and land gate, and an original foot bridge over the grand canal.

Closed · opens 7:30 am·¥25

Ping Jiang Road

A beautiful walk along an ancient road paved with hand-cut stones over a thousand years old and lined with shops maintaining traditional architectural styles. It runs from near the Humble Administrator's Garden and Suzhou Museum south into the center of town. There are a surprising number of western-style coffee shops with full English menus, Internet and English books. If you get further north on this road, but south of the museum area, the shops eventually run out and it just becomes a quiet neighbourhood again. This may be the best part of all.

Shantang Street

山塘

A restored canal street running from Changmen to Tiger Hill. The southeast end of the street may be mobbed with tourists, but as you walk further north the souvenir shops and restaurants disappear, and you can take a leisurely stroll along the canal through a quiet residential neighborhood.

Shi Quan Jie

Main area downtown for tourist shopping, with everything from cheap tacky souvenirs and ¥10 allegedly silk ties to fine antiques, silks and jewellery

Suzhou Archaeological Museum

苏州考古博物馆

One of Suzhou's newest museums. The museum displays artefacts from archaeological sites in the Suzhou area.

09:00-17:00, closed on Wed

Suzhou Art Gallery

苏州美术馆

Exhibits of painting and calligraphy, especially modern Chinese art and local Suzhou artists.

9am-5pm·Free

Suzhou Arts and Crafts Museum

Sūzhōu Gōngyì Měishù Bówùguǎn 苏州工艺美术博物馆

This is a relatively new museum, opened in 2003, but the building it is in dates back to the reign of Emperor Qianlong, 1735-1796. The museum's collection numbers nearly one-thousand pieces and includes modern Suzhou embroidery, sandalwood, tapestry, wood carving, stone carving, Ming-style furniture, ethnic musical instruments, antique bronze, lacquerwork and metal crafts.

Suzhou Museum

Sūzhōu Bówùguǎn

Designed by I.M. Pei, whose family came from Suzhou. Pei lived most of his life in the US and was a very successful architect there, known for the glass pyramid outside the Louvre in Paris, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and other landmarks. He came out of retirement in his 80s to return to Suzhou to create a museum that married his modernist sensibility with his sense of the region; as a teenager he lived in Shanghai and often visited family in Suzhou. Do not miss the recreation of the Ming Dynasty scholar's study. You'll need to make a reservation in the museum's website.

Tue-Sun 09:00-17:00·Free

Suzhou Museum West

苏州博物馆西馆

If you’re unable to secure a booking at the Suzhou Museum’s main branch, you may want to come here instead. Suzhou Museum West is actually a lot larger than the main branch. It has exhibitions on local history and culture, and often hosts temporary exhibitions. There is also a cafe and a restaurant.

09:00-17:00, no entry after 16:00, closed on Mondays·General entry is free, fees are sometimes charged for temporary exhibitions

Suzhou Opera Museum

苏州戏曲博物馆

The Suzhou Opera Museum has performances of three traditional local arts — Kunqu opera, which is on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, Suqu opera, and Pingtan storytelling with ballads. All use the Wu language. There are stages for the opera and a teahouse in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) style for the storytelling. The museum part has exhibition rooms for each of those three arts, a collection of musical instruments, and other items including block-printed editions of Kunqu opera from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), original rubbings of local opera scripts, rare handwritten copies of operas and Pingtan from the Qing Dynasty, and items that belonged to well-known deceased singers such as Ma Rufei, Wu Mei, Yu Sulu and Wang Jili.

around 14:00 on Sundays·¥30

Suzhou Pingtan Museum

苏州评弹博物馆

Dedicated to Pingtan, a traditional Suzhou performing art involving storytelling and ballad singing in the Suzhou dialect. Visitors can enjoy live performances, appreciating the elegant music and the soft, melodic sounds of the local language.

Check for performance times·Ticket fee for shows

Suzhou Silk Museum

苏州丝绸博物馆

This museum is dedicated to the city's millennia-old silk production history. Beyond static exhibits, visitors can often watch live demonstrations of intricate traditional weaving techniques like Song brocade, making it a deeply immersive cultural experience[citation:4].

Suzhou Stele Inscription Museum

苏州碑刻博物馆

Housed in the former Confucian Temple, this museum holds a rich collection of ancient stone steles, including the renowned "Four Song Dynasty Steles." It's a quieter alternative to the city's more famous museums, focusing on the art of calligraphy and stone carving.

Temple of Mystery

玄妙观 Xuán Miào Guān

A large Taoist hall perpetually obscured by a curtain of joss smoke of devotes eager to placate the gods inside. It has a large market area, many small shops with a range of goods aimed mainly at either devotees or tourists. The temple was established in the 3rd century and broadened to its present size in the Song Dynasty, where it became a popular spot for travelling magicians and acrobats. The erstwhile performers have given way to a multitude of stalls selling meretricious worldly goods on which you can easily make your money disappear. The main Sanxing Dian hall was rebuilt in 1811 to hold Song Dynasty deity statues, later destroyed by Red Guards they occupied the hall during the cultural revolution. The present sculptures are modern reproductions. Of greater antiquity is a stone impressed with the footprints of a Taoist god, found in the Ming dynasty. The stone is genuine, but the origins of the feet less certain.

Closed · opens 7:30 am·¥10

The Bookworm

Good coffee and food. Free wireless Internet. Good selection of English books to read in the shop or to borrow if you get a membership. A very nice alternative to relaxing at a bar. This place has become a major focal point for the resident expat community.

The Couple's Garden Retreat

Ou Yuan 耦园

Built in early 20th century by a couple. Many small garden rooms lead you from view to view. Each window or hall perfectly frames a set of plants, rocks or trees. Every inch of the garden has been carefully thought out. Most of the garden consists of covered walkways, so even though it may rain you will be able to enjoy this garden without getting wet.

¥20

The Garden of Cultivation

YiPu Garden

Make sure to go all the way towards the back inside the garden to see the best part.

¥10

The Garden of the Master of the Nets

Wang Shi Yuan 网师园

Founded in 1140, and rebuilt in 1770 by the bureaucrat Song Zongyuan. The enclosed complex of house and garden is one of the smallest, most beautiful, and most perfectly proportioned in Suzhou. Don't let the small size deceive you, this garden has enough to occupy you for half a day or more. On certain evenings there are demonstrations of many traditional performing arts.

07:30-17:00(Mar - Oct), 07:30-16:30 (Nov - Feb),·¥40

The Humble Administrator's Garden

Zhuo Zheng Yuan 拙政园

Said to have cost a boatload of silver and taken sixteen years to build. Free tours through the garden start every 5-10 minutes, though these tours are conducted only in Mandarin. Included in the tour is a "Chinese marriage", a look at carved tree roots, followed by a boat ride through the garden canals. The incredible collection of bonsai trees ('pen cai' or 'pen jing' in Chinese) at the end of the garden furthest from the main entrance is worth a trip all by itself.

Closed · opens 7:30 am·¥80, ¥70 off-season

The Retreat and Reflection Garden

Tui Si Yuan 退思园

In the township of TongLi (同里) in Wujiang district, about 30 km south of central Suzhou.

The Surging Wave Pavilion

Canglang Pavilion, Canglang Ting 沧浪亭

One of the oldest of Suzhou's wonderful collection of private or "scholar's" gardens. More densely forested than other gardens, so ideal for hot days when you want to escape the sun. This garden is best viewed from within its many pavilions, with windows framing different views.

¥20

Tiger Hill Pagoda

虎丘塔; Hǔqiūtǎ

This is also called the "Yunyan Pagoda", after the Buddhist temple it was once part of; the temple was burned during the cultural revolution. Some buildings have been reconstructed and a 48-m tall brick pagoda with seven stories and eight sides remains, though now missing its wooden outer skin. It is one of the few remaining examples of pagodas of this type and is sometimes called the "Leaning Tower of China" because it has tilted a bit since it was built in the 900s. Tiger Hill is of enormous importance historically and culturally, but much of its significance will likely be lost on foreign visitors.

¥70, ¥60 off-season, tours from ¥60-100 are negotiable. Also for those less able to climb the hill, electric carts make the journey for ¥20 per person