Jiangsu Province 江 苏 省 简 介 - Suzhou 苏州市 - Other Scenic Spots 其它景点

Garden of Master-of-the-Net 网师园

Garden of the Master-of-the-Net is the smallest one in Suzhou. Its former owner, professing to be above politics, styled himself a fisherman. Within a half hectare of land a small bamboo hut was put up to serve as a study. It is decorated with palace lanterns and scroll of calligraphy and painting. In front of it peonies grow in abundance. Most fascinating is the small yard, only two meters across, separating the study from the back wall. Bamboo, banana and winter sweet grow in this tiny garden among man made rocks and hills. The three windows of the study frame the garden into Chinese landscape paintings. Part of the garden has been reproduced in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, USA.

Guanqian Street 观前街

The name comes from Xuanmiao Temple, which sits in the middle of the street and has long been a Taoist resort. The street is well crammed with fine and diverse shops, restaurants and services of all kinds, and its history can be traced back more than 1,000 years. They give you unsurpassed variety and selection. The street has a lengthy of 760 meters, including eastern, middle and western sections. The eastern part has kept most of the ancient buildings of historical significance, including many traditional shops of famous brands. The middle is mainly the temple, and fashionable shops occupy the western portion.

Arts and Crafts Zone: The two-storey Han-Tang Dynasty Pavilion offers for sale a miscellany of traditional art works, including folk carvings, brick works, stone carvings, lacquerware, jade, embroidery, traditional paintings and furniture in the Ming and Qing styles. On the second floor, the China Suzhou Wild Swan Gallery has a collection of contemporary oil paintings and sculptures. The gallery stages exhibitions and performances frequently at its Art Saloon, including Pingtan (storytelling and ballet singing in Suzhou dialect) performances, traditional painting exhibitions, and Chinese folk art shows.

Lingering Garden or Garden to Linger In 留园

Lingering Garden is one of the cerebrated gardens in Suzhou. It was first constructed in 1460 in the Ming Dynasty. Winding throughout the garden is a 700-meter-long corridor, and on the walls of which are a great number of stone carvings and windows. Within the garden is “Yet Another Village又一村,” a winding path with a trellised grape vine canopy. All along the path are hundreds of potted flowers and trees, some as much as three hundred years old. The Lingering Garden boasts the largest rock in South China. It is nine meters high, weighs five tons and was transported from Lake Tai some four hundred years ago. Because of its height and shape it was named “Cloud-Capped Peak.” Limestone boulders like this were quarried from mountains around the lake and sunk in it where they stayed, eroding into strange shapes with cavities and grooves. These are the rocks that have been used in the landscaping of many famous gardens in China.

Encompassing 3.3 hectares (8.15 acres), the garden is divided into four parts: east, west, central and north. Lingering Garden is the masterpiece of the garden building in ancient China and put under special preservation by the Chinese Government.

Lion Grove 狮子林

The Lion Grove is one of the four noted gardens in Suzhou. It was first built in 1342 in the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). This small garden is truly exquisite in design, the rockeries imaginative. Entering the garden the tourist will find stones in various interesting shapes. Look at them closely, they are lions: lying sitting , slinking along, standing on hind legs, embracing a ball made of strips of silk. The rockeries form a labyrinth of caves. Some are linked with each other and others are not. Those who are not familiar with these caves may easily lose their way running into dead ends or walking in circles within the maze.

Panmen Gate 盘门

Built in 514 BC, the City of Suzhou has 8 land-gates and 8 water-gates, one of which is named Panmen Gate, consisting of double-layer and-gate and water-gates abreast as well as an ambush area. Surrounded by the Grand Canal, ancient bridges, and Auspicious Light Pagoda瑞光塔 , the classical Gate Tower can provide the tourist with unique perspectives.

The Administrative Department of Panmen Gate, a famous ancient scenic spot in Suzhou, invested about 18 million yuan (US $ 2.2 million) to carry out comprehensive improvements to the environment. The improvements to the area included such things as planting trees, flowers and grass, clearing ponds, and installing lights. According to statistics from the department, approximately 100 trees were planted, more than 7,000 square meters increased the area lawn, and about 15,000 square meters of pond were cleaned. An additional 30,000 pots of flowers were made ready to decorate the scene, and more than 400 lights were installed. At the same time, the department reorganized their ticket sales office, did some interior decorating and planned new tour routes. The scenic area hopes to welcome visitors with an entirely new face.

Pavilion of the Surging Waves 沧浪亭

Encompassing 1.07 hectares (2.7 acres) Pavilion of the Surging Waves, one of the oldest existing gardens, is well known for its peaceful scenery and simple architecture. It was built in the period 1041 to 1048 in the Northern Song Dynasty more than 900 years ago by the poet Su Shunqin苏舜钦(Zimei子美 ) who had just lost his official position and decided to buy a small piece of land in Suzhou on which to built a residence. That part of land in Suzhou, which he chose was known for its beauty. The garden is a fine example showing how the natural landscape both inside and outside could be merged. Long corridors follow the banks of the green water pond just outside the garden. Walking along the outer edges of these corridors the tourist feels as if s/ he was a part of the scenery outside the garden; the elderly men angle from platforms at the bends in the corridors. Turn toward the inner edge of the corridors and through the windows of the brick wall the tourist can see in the distance waving trees, bamboos and flowers among the rockeries and pavilions inside the garden.

Tuisiyuan (Retreat and Meditation Garden) 退思园

Tongli, together with Zhouzhuang and Luzhi, are famous as the “three water towns of Jiangsu Province.” “Tong” and “Li” are actually a reconstitution of two other characters, “fu” and “tu.” Tongli was called Futu, or “the wealthy land,” from the 11th century. In those 10 centuries, famous scholars, retired government officials and successful businessmen all lived here.

Today’s Tongli dwellings were adapted from those lush private gardens. Some are now fine hotels run by local people. For example, Ren Lansheng, an official of the Qing Dynasty, was demoted to the town and built the famous Tuisiyuan. The name of the tiny but beautiful garden means, “Retreat and Meditation.” (When in office, one should be royal to the emperor, when away from office, one should meditate upon his previous faults. This was the motto of Chinese officials in imperial times, hence the name) It is also fun to hire a boat and sail through the network of canals of Tongli under the town’s 49 stone bridges. Tongli is very small for a weekend tour, but it is great for a weekend holiday.

Tongli boasts splendid scenery and rich cultural relics, especially its ancient architecture. Being historically separated from the outside world by five lakes has made its access to the outside difficult, but it allowed the town to preserve its numerous ancient buildings. Fifteen streams divide the town into seven blocks, and 49 elegant stone bridges link the blocks together, with so many cultural treasures and such a unique scene.

Zhouzhuang-Oriental Venice 周庄-东方威尼斯

Located to the east of Suzhou, the town of Zhouzhuang, was first built by the King of the Wu in the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC). Almost every piece of the ancient town is an art work. According to the Suzhou Tourism Bureau, they have invited all the best archaeologists in China to manage a deteriorating carved brick gate in Zhouzhuang, but none of them could handle the job. No living archaeologist has mastered this ancient skill. The bedrooms of Zhouzhuang residents remain cool even in the hottest season, thanks to the mysterious structure of the old houses. Their windows are inlaid not with glass, but with polished shells. The town benefits from the beauty of rivers and lakes. The town is on Dianshan Lake of the Grand View Garden near Shanghai. The 14 ancient bridges on the river were built during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Residents of the ancient town built houses and streets along the river. Over 60 per cent of the town’s houses date back to the early Ming Dynasty. Over recent years, more and more tourists have been coming to this town.

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