Suzhou

Suzhou is a city in Jiangsu province in eastern China, on the Grand Canal near the shores of Lake Tai. Canals cross its old center, and its walled gardens of scholars and officials are listed by UNESCO as the Classical Gardens of Suzhou.

King Helü of Wu made Suzhou his capital in 514 BC, and his minister Wu Zixu laid out its walls and water gates. The Grand Canal, dug under the Sui dynasty in the early 7th century, linked the city to the north, and rice and silk from the region went up it to the capital. Under the Ming and Qing dynasties, retired officials and merchants built private gardens behind their houses in the old town, and the Humble Administrator's Garden, with its lotus ponds and pavilions, dates from the early 16th century. Pingjiang Road, a lane of whitewashed houses beside a canal, keeps the street plan of the Song dynasty.

Silk weaving and Su embroidery, stitched with very fine silk thread, have been made in Suzhou for centuries. Suzhou Industrial Park, set up with Singapore in 1994 east of the old town, holds factories of foreign makers of electronics and machinery. Ecovacs, based in the city, makes robot vacuum cleaners and window cleaners, and Hengtong, in the Wujiang district, makes optical fiber and power cables.

Tiger Hill, in the northwest of the city, is crowned by Yunyan Pagoda, a brick tower of the 10th century that leans to one side. I. M. Pei, whose family came from Suzhou and once owned Lion Grove Garden, designed the Suzhou Museum, which opened beside the Humble Administrator's Garden in the 2000s with white walls and gray roofs in the style of the old town. Kunqu, a slow and lyrical form of Chinese opera, grew up in the Suzhou region during the Ming dynasty and is listed by UNESCO as intangible heritage. Pingtan, a storytelling art sung in the Suzhou dialect to the pipa and the sanxian, is still heard in the teahouses of the city.