Suzhou

Attractions

• Suzhou Museum
• Suzhou Silk Museum
• Suzhou Museum of Opera and Theatre
• Xiao Hui Wang Art Museum
• Suzhou Art Museum
• Suzhou Garden Museum
• Suzhou Arts and Crafts Museum
• Wujiang Museum
• Suzhou Museum of Education
• Suzhou Pingtan Museum

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Wikivoyage

Suzhou (苏州; Sou-tseu in Wu, Sūzhōu in Mandarin, old romanization "Soochow".) is a city in Jiangsu province, famed for its beautiful gardens and traditional waterside architecture. A group of gardens form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town has many canals; Marco Polo called it the Venice of the East.

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Wikipedia

Suzhou is the most populous prefecture-level city in Jiangsu province, China, and was the historic economic and cultural center of China between the Song Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. Suzhou is a major tourist destination and industrial hub of Eastern China, specializing in high-end manufacturing. It is part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis.

Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the Eastern Han dynasty, mostly due to emigration from northern China. From the 10th century onwards, it has been an important economic, cultural, and commercial center, as well as the largest non-capital city in the world, until it was overtaken by Shanghai in approximately 1850. Since the reform and opening up began in 1978, Suzhou attained GDP growth rates of about 14% in 35 years. In 2023, Suzhou had 5 million registered residents. Suzhou is listed as the # 33 cities by scientific output according to the Nature Index 2025. The city is home to universities, including Soochow University, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong–Liverpool University, and Changshu Institute of Technology.

The city's tourist attractions include canals, stone bridges, pagodas, and gardens. Along with Hangzhou, it is sometimes described as heaven on earth. The Classical Gardens of Suzhou were added to the list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1997 and 2000.

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