Suzhou is China's well-known "city of gardens", which tops all others in both the number and the artistry of gardens. Dating from Pi Jiang Garden of the Eastern Jing Dynasty, Suzhou's art of gardening has undergone a history of 1500 years. There were once over 200 gardens in the city, and 69 of them are still in good reservation today.
The Lingering Garden:
The garden was first laid out in 1522 AD. The whole space is artfully and appropriately handled, and arranged with exquisite petty scales. It is a typical garden of the Ming period with elegance and exquisiteness in the southern Yangtse Valley.
Masters-of-nets-Garden:
The garden has earned its fame as a masterpiece of classical residential garden. The architectural device of the embankment along the pond is the most successful along Suzhou's gardens. Buildings of varying sizes are carefully erected by the water. A reflection of Nature in nutshell, the garden is considered a stroke of genius among the residential gardens.
Suzhou Silk Museum:
It is multi-functional, and combines exhibits with demonstrations of silk weaving. Exhibits on display in its various exhibition halls reflect the origin, evolution and development of silk production, from primitive times to the Shang, Zhou, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties right through to present day. Among the exhibits are 80 traditional silk looms, 320 fragments of silk from various dynasties, 30 bolts of ancient silk, 350 ancient garments, and a large number of samples of modern silk products.
Canal ride in Suzhou:
Suzhou is called “Oriental Venice” because of a plenty of canals, to visit this city with a local “Gondola” may bring you more fun than walking. The Canal ranks alongside the Great Wall of China as the country's greatest engineering achievement and it is the longest man-made waterway in world. A boat ride on the Canal reveals the traditional way of life for the people who have lived here for generations.
