Suzhou Food belongs to Su Cuisine, one of the eight famous culinary schools in China. In sum, Su cuisine has the following several characteristics: first, with precise material choice and exquisite and fine cooking, it is made according to materials and on schedule. Second, it excels in a variety of common cooking methods such as stewing, simmering, baking over a slow fire, warming-up, steaming, sautéing and stir-frying. Next, it has a clear and fresh taste with moderate saltiness and sweetness, which is thick without being greasy and light without being thin. Finally, it places an emphasis on flavoring soup and retaining original juice.

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Suzhou is a hot tour destination in China.

Abbreviation: Su (苏 in Chinese)
Coordinates: 31° 18′ 0″ N, 120° 36′ 0″ E
Country: China
Population: 9.2 million people with 2.956 million non-permanent residents at the end of 2007.
Currency: Yuan (Renminbi)
Language: Suzhou Dialect
Time Zone: China Standard Time (UTC+8) Area: 8,488.42 square kilometers
Administrative Divisions: 6 districts, 5 county-level cities and 121 towns
Altitude: 5-6m
City Flower: Osmanthus
City Tree: Camphor laurel
Main Rivers: Grand Canal

Sister Cities：
Asia: Ikeda, Osaka, Kanazawa, Jeonju, Kamekka, Nabari, Mie, Taebaek, Yeongju, Daisen, Tottori, Hirokawa, Fukuoka, Eiheiji, Fukui, Marugame, Kagawa, Ayabe, Sendai, Kagoshima, Tahara, Aichi, Tottori, Uchinada, Chiba, Hwaseong, Nago
Europe: Venice, Tulcea County, Riga, Grenoble, Nijmegen, Esbjerg, Konstanz, Riihimaki, Nowy Sacz, Kiev, Zaporizhia, Riesa, Santa Lucija, Brest, Rosalina, Bourgoin-Jallieu
Northern America: Victoria, Portland, Jacksonville, Whittier, South EI Monte
Southern America: Porto Alegre, Santiago del Estero Province, Vina del Mar, Oceania: Taupo, Logan, Rotorua, Portland, Townsville, Dubbo
Oceania: Taupo, Logan, Rotorua, Portland, Townsville, Dubbo
Africa: Antananarivo, Grootfontein, Ismailia

Suzhou Location

Suzhou is situated at the central part of Yangtze River Delta Region and is adjacent to Shanghai and Wuxi. It is the southeastern gate of Jiangsu Province and the only route to the middle and northern Jiangsu. The coordinates of Suzhou is 31° 18′ 0″ N, 120° 36′ 0″ E. See map of Suzhou to view the exact location of Suzhou.

Suzhou Districts

Suzhou has totally 6 jurisdictional districts and 5 county-level cities under its administration

6 Jurisdictional Districts: Canglang District, Jinchang District, Pingjiang District, , Xiangcheng District, Wuzhong District and Huqiu District

5 County-level Cities: Changshu City, Taicang City, Kunshan City, Wujiang City and Zhangjiagang City

1 Technology Zone: Suzhou Industrial Park

Suzhou Codes

Suzhou Postal Code: 215002

Suzhou Area Code: Internal dialing code is 0512 while international telephone calling code is +86-512.

The main delicacy streets in Suzhou can be divided into two kinds: the traditional delicacy streets, such as Taijiannong Delicacy Street and Bifengfang Delicacy Street in Guanqianjie District; Shiquanjie Food Street and Fenghuangjie Food Street in Panmen District, and exotic delicacy street such as Xinqu Commercial Street featuring Japanese food and Xindu Piazza characterized with western food.

Famous Restaurants

Deyuelou Restaurant

Deyue Lou is a famed Suzhou style restaurant. It keeps the traditional Suzhou cooking features of stewing, simmering and braising. Most chefs in the restaurant have been trained in the headquarters to assure each meal conforming to the perfect Suzhou cooking style. Still, the signature dishes here are Mandarin Fish, Fenzhengrou (steamed pork slices with glutinous rice flour), Xiefen Tofu (braised bean curd with crab meat) and Qingchao Xiaren (stir-fired shelled fresh shrimps). Deyue Lou usually tends to fill quickly on weekends, so reservation is necessary.

Deyue Lou Old Restaurant

Hours: 11:00-14:00, 17:00-21:00
Address: No. 27, Taijian Lane, Pingjiang District
Phone: 0512-65238940

Deyue Lou New Restaurant

Hours: 11:00-14:00, 17:00-21:00
Address: No. 8, Taijian Lane, Pingjiang District
Phone: 0512-65222230

Deyue Lou Restaurant-Ligongdi Branch

Hours: 11:00-14:00, 17:00-21:00
Address: No. 8-18-22, Ligongdi Rd. Suzhou Industry Park
Phone: 0512-62656999

Songhelou Restaurant

Songhelou Restaurant , created in 1737 during the Qing Dynasty, is the most famous old trademark of Suzhou Cuisine. This 2000-year-old Songhelou Restaurant in Taijian Alley has long been known for its authentic Suzhou dishes. The restaurant fully inherits the traditional features of Suzhou Cuisine, attaching importance to materials, cutting and duration and degree of heating. While maintaining tradition, the restaurant has made many innovations. Songhelou's most popular dishes are freshwater fish and shrimps, including sweet and sour mandarin fish, fried snails with shrimps and braised eel.

Songhe Lou Restaurant-Guanqian Branch

Hours: 11:00-13:30, 17:00-20:30
Location: close to Guanqian St. Xuanmiao Temple
Address: No. 72, Taijian Lane, Pingjiang District
Phone: 0512-67700688 67277006

Songhe Lou Restaurant-Shantang St. Branch

Hours: 11:00-13:30, 17:00-20:30
Address: No. 198, Shantang St. Jinchang District
Phone: 0512-65321398

Songhe Lou Restaurant-Changxu Rd. Branch

Hours: 11:00-13:30, 17:00-20:30
Address: 5F, Holiday Inn, No. 345, Changxu Rd. Jinchang District
Phone: 0512-65588888

Getting There and Away

Suzhou has its own airport, Suzhou Guangfu International Airport , but it has limited connections - flights only from Guangfu in Guandong Province and Beijing only once every week - so you are most likely to come in through another city.

~Through Shanghai
The most common route is via Shanghai — Shanghai Pudong International Airport for the majority of international flights or Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport with mostly domestic flights, which are 120km and 86km away from Suzhou respectively. Shuttle buses run between Suzhou and the airports daily. The whole journey takes about one hour and forty minutes.

Transfer by private car (with driver) costs approximately RMB 400 one way from Pudong airport and takes approximately 2 hours in light traffic. Though, when approaching the bus terminus at PVG you may be offered a one way trip for RMB 300. This can be reduced if the driver finds someone to share with you

~Through Wuxi
Wuxi is a small city close to Suzhou with an airport that could be an alternative for flights within China. It is smaller, and easier to get around, than Shanghai. There is almost no transportation to/from there but Suzhou taxis will go for about ￥120-160. You can also take a taxi from the Wuxi airport into central Wuxi train station (about 50-60RMB), and take a short 25 minute train ride from Wuxi station to Suzhou.

~Through other cities
Other major cities nearby, Hangzhou and Nanjing, also have international airports. Either is conveniently reached via the new fast trains, or by bus. Air Asia's Hangzhou to Kuala Lumpur flight is usually the cheapest route from central China to Southeast Asia;

~From Shanghai
Myriad trains leave from Shanghai for Suzhou daily. The cost for a train is： local without air-con yen13 for an approximately two-hour ride, or yen26 with air-con for an approximately 20 or 40-minute ride. Make sure to ask for the next earliest arrival time since booking the next new high-speed train often means a 2-hour wait in order to save 20 minutes on the travel time, hence arriving an hour or so later than the slightly slower train.

Trains are sometimes sold out and it would be a good idea to buy tickets ahead of time. There are plenty of travel agencies that sell tickets, especially in Shanghai, although you can also buy tickets at the train station, which has several ticket windows that cater to English speakers.

Note: Trains with with the D prefix are the new high speed trains. T trains are not as fast as D, but still faster and more comfortable than everything else.The first column is the train number, the third is the departure time and the fourth is the arrival time in Suzhou. Buying round-trip tickets would not probably save you any money but would save you a lot of trouble.

~From Nanjing
You can also reach Suzhou by high speed (CRH) or normal train from Nanjing. Suzhou trains leave from the main (North) train station, which is on the subway line.

~From Hangzhou
Trains run fairly frequently from Hangzhou.

Buses leave regularly from the Shanghai Bus Station adjacent to the railway station for some destination and from the South Bus Station for many buses in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The journey is usually about 2hrs 30mins from Shanghai. Hangzhou is about 2.5 hours by car to/from Suzhou. See Shanghai for more details on additional bus stations.

Getting Around

As in most other Chinese cities, are a safe and easy method of travel. If possible try to have your destination written in Chinese on a piece of paper as this will greatly simplify your journey. Always walk past the touts near stations and tourist attractions and get a taxi from the queue. You may get some great mini-lessons in Chinese language from Suzhou's taxi drivers.

Available on most main streets and always near tourist attractions. Negotiate the price before you get in and don't allow the driver to change it once you arrive at your destination, for example, saying 15 and demanding 50. This is a slow means of travel but it allows you to actually see the city while you go somewhere. Despite what you might expect, pedicabs are often more expensive than taxis- and be warned that 99% of Suzhou pedicab drivers are notorious price-gougers, so bargain hard with these guys. Expect to pay a little more in the summer months since the driver is working hard in the heat to take you there.

Found the same places as pedicabs, and come with all of the pedicabs' caveats listed above. Suzhou motorcycle taxis are usually filthy, dangerously driven, and relentlessly uncomfortable (the seats are about 12 cm above the floor) so traumatic to your spine and are not recommended.

Climate and Weather

Suzhou is located in the lower reach of the Yangtze River, belonging to the monsoon ocean climate zone, with slightly cold winter and humid summer. The best time to travel is during the spring and autumn seasons.

Tourist Attractions

Humble Administrator’s Garden
As the largest ancient garden in Suzhou, Humble Administrator’s Garden is a representative of gardens in southern China, which is a must visit place for your Suzhou tour. The best travel season is spring, summer and autumn. While it is better to avoid the Chinese holidays.

Suzhou Silk Museum
Suzhou is a historical city and the cradle of silk as well. Suzhou Silk Museum is an ideal place for tourists to get more idea of the development of Chinese silk industry. You will unveil the mystery of silk production and touches the choicest silk and satin.

Zhou Zhuang

Zhou Zhuang is a typical water town located within Kunshan county-level city. Now it is a popular tourist destination noted for dense cultural atmosphere, well-preserved residences and local flavored customs. Please avoid visiting Zhou Zhuang at weekends since you may only experience the lingering charm of the water town when there is less people.

Shopping in Suzhou

As a city famed through the ages for its silk embroidery, Suzhou is one of the best places to pick up silk handicrafts. Shopping is good along Shi Quan Street, especially for many souvenirs. The Silk Embroidery Institute is a lively enterprise producing high quality work which you can see on a tour of the facility. The gift shop has prices a little higher than at the street stalls but they will bargain and the quality is much better.

Suzhou embroidery, silk fans, musical instruments, scroll mounting, lanterns, mahogany furniture, and jade carving are available at discount prices since they are made or created within the city. Suzhou double-sided embroidery, in which the same picture is rendered in great detail on both sides of a silk screen and the knots are tied in the middle, is a traditional Suzhou specialty and is absolutely amazing. The needles used for this work are finer than a human hair. Be aware that the lower-priced examples of Suzhou embroidery sold to many tourists are probably made by machines.

Freshwater pearls - The Suzhou area is part of the largest freshwater pearl-producing region in the world. Pearls can be bought in every conceivable price and quality range, either singly or as strings or jewelry.

Sandalwood fans - folding fans made from thin ornately-stamped sheets of sandalwood- are another very old Suzhou craft and widely sold around the city. The scent of the breeze they generate while fanning is heavenly. Cheap versions are probably more mundane wood dipped in sandalwood oil, and will lose their scent rather quickly.

Tea is produced in Suzhou; the most famous locally-produced green tea is called 'Biluochun' and is quite nice indeed. Large shops with endless varieties of tea can be found all around the city, and some have seating where you will be encouraged to come sit and try a pot.