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Suzhou

Suzhou was named Wu in the ancient times. First built in 514B.C., the city has a rich history of 2,500 years. The old city has generally retained the unique characteristics of the past. We can see its double-chessboard layout in which "the streets and rivers go side by side, while the water and land routes run in parallel"; We can also see its "3 longitudinal. 3 horizontal and one ring like" river course; its small bridges over slowly flowing waters: its "red brick walls with black tiled roofs" and its "historical interests and well-known gardens". Historically this is a remarkable place rich in outstanding talents and natural resources. The city is praised as "the earthly heaven" for its fully developed traditional culture and its scenic gardens.

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Local Culture

• Culture and Art
  Pingtan and Kun Opera
  Suzhou Pingtan is a kind of story-telling art in Wu dialect. It includes two types : Suzhou Pinghua and Suzhou Tanci (story telling to the accompaniment of stringed instruments). The history of Pingtan can be dated up to Tang and Song dynasties. It was trans-formed to the present form during the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. In the first half of this century, Pingtan was popular in the rural areas of Jiangnan, or South of Yangtze River. It was said then that wherever there is a teahouse, there was the art of Pingtan staged in Wu dialect.
  Local Dance
  Suzhou, a famous cultural city with more than 2500 years, named as "Oriental City of Museums", now has a dozen museums, including the Folk Customs Museum, Opera Museum, Stone Tablet Museum, Su Embroidery Museum, Silk Museum, and Coin Museum. These specialized museums, together with the comprehensive Museum built on the site of King of Loyalty's residence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, turn out to be one of the great characteristics of Suzhou's cultural construction, by which this ancient and beautiful city is becoming even more attractive to the visitors.
  Wumen Fine Arts School
  Wumen Fine Arts School had forcibly ruled the national fine arts circle proximately during the period from Ming' Jingtai to Jiajing years (1450-1565). Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin and Qiu Ying were the representative painters of Wumen Fine Arts. Till late years of Shen Zhou, Wumen Fine Arts School had gradually risen up. And till the times of Wen Zhengming and Tang Yin, the fine arts school had become an out-standing school in China's fine arts circle. Later, Suzhou painters rising up from Wumen Fine Arts School were Chen Daofu, Qian Gu, Lu Zhi, Wang Guxiang, Wen Peng, Wen Jia, Wen Boren, Zhou Zhimian, Xu Hengze, Lu Shidao, Zhu Lang, Ju Jie, Chen Kuo, Wang Chong, Xie Shichen and Zhou Tianqiu, and they were all individuals recorded in China's Fine Arts History. The main characteristics of Wumen Fine Arts School in art are as following. It not only inherited traditional styles of Yuan hermitic painters, but also learned from all predecessors, extensively absorbed everyone's strong points, and combined them into its own new style. Many painters of Wumen Fine Arts School lived in Suzhou all the time, and they painted all mountains and rivers in Suzhou with their own brushes and formed their own artistic features. These painters possess multiple artistic accomplishments. Not only Shen, Wen, Tang and Qiu's poem, calligraphy and painting are 3 stunts, but their successors also had high culture accomplishments and they could write, make poems and paint, and some of them even were famous seal cutters, and most of their works had the characteristics of catering to both refined and popular tastes. Wumen Fine Arts School not only occupies a glorious page in China Fine Arts History, but also has been in the leading place of Ming-Qing landscape painting circle for over 400 years and continues to progress till today. At present, Suzhou establishes Academy of Traditional Chinese Painting and that of Wumen Painting, and sets up Guwuxuan Publishing House. Artists inherit and expand the Wumen Fine Arts School's painting characteristics of simplicity, prettiness, brightness, freshness and expressing soft feelings with strong strokes, and they combine each school's strong points, absorb extensively and constantly create new painting styles.
  Su Embroidery Art
  Together with Xiang Embroidery, Shu Embroidery and Yue Embroidery, Su Embroidery is famed as one of Nation's Top 4 Embroideries. Su Embroider has a long history. From Ming Dynasty, there were embroidering girls all over towns and villages, schools multiplied and skilled people doing embroidery came forth one after another. Su Embroidery has been famous for a long time for its "exquisiteness, elegance and cleanness". Skilled ones doing embroidery pulled threads and excelled nature. Su Embroidery is beautiful in pattern, elegant in color and refined and unique in embroidering.
  
  Su Embroidery has characteristics such as "smoothness" the surface of embroidery is smooth and submissive, "uniform" the outline edge is uniform, "exquisiteness" needle is used skillfully and threads are slender, "denseness" the arrangement of lines is tight and no needle trace is protruding, "softness" the degree of depth of color is suitable and "brightness" dazzling and colorful, etc. Patterns of expression of Su Embroider is various, such as single-side embroider, double-side embroider, thin-needle embroider, random-needle embroider, thin-random needle mixed embroider, double-side and different colors, different patterns and different-needle embroider, etc. Works of Su Embroider is rich in levels, strong in nature, deep in meanings, and affords food for thought. In tradition, works of Su Embroider takes golden fish and cats as its main subjects, and now, it has developed to embroider flowers, classic fine arts works, portraits and photographic works, etc. Noble and elegant works of Su Embroider is very popular with international tourists and is famed as "Oriental Pearls". It was once designated as a gift for foreign head of state by the State Council.
   

• Museum
  Suzhou Historical Museum
  Suzhou, a famous cultural city with more than 2500 years, named as "Oriental City of Museums", now has a dozen museums, including the Folk Customs Museum, Opera Museum, Stone Tablet Museum, Su Embroidery Museum, Silk Museum, and Coin Museum. These specialized museums, together with the comprehensive Museum built on the site of King of Loyalty's residence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, turn out to be one of the great characteristics of Suzhou's cultural construction, by which this ancient and beautiful city is becoming even more attractive to the visitors.
  Museum of Tablet Inscriptions
  At the south end of the People's Road in Suzhou City, there is a famous cultural tourist scenic spot-Suzhou Museum of Tablet Inscriptions where the walls are yellow and the tiles are high, the ancient trees are reaching the sky, the bur dings are grand and beautiful, the tablet groups are like the forest and the scenery is pretty. Suzhou Museum of Tablet Inscriptions is inside the ancient Suzhou Government School and Confucian Temple (being established by Fan Zhongyan in Northern Song Dynasty). Founded in December 1986, the museum is a professional museum specially engaged in the collection, study, exhibition and reproduction of the ancient tablet inscriptions. The state level historical relics of the four great tablets in Song Dynasty-Pingjiang Map, Astronomical Map, Geographical Map and Emperor Inheritability and Fortune Picture, and Suzhou Commercial and Economic Tablet Inscriptions in the Qing Dynasty as well as the famous tablets, the only existing copy and the facsimile and rubbings (book of rubbings) handed down from ancient times since the Song Dynasty are the important collections of the museum. It is also one of the forests of steles with the greatest reputation in the Southern Part of Changjiang River.
  Address : No.45, People's Road, Suzhou City
  Telephone : 0512-5194343, 5197203
  Silk Museum
  Suzhou City is the ancient capital of Wu Kingdom in the Spring and Autumn Period. It is located on the bank of the Taihu Lake with a vast expanse of rich field and Chinese catalpa and mulberry being all over the place. It has been the home of producing the brocade and embroidery all through the ages. It is the famous ancient city of silk in China. Its silk culture originated at the late period of the New Stone Age. In Dongwu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period, it has already opened a silk route on the sea towards countries of Rome and Japan etc. after the Tang and Song Dynasties, Suzhou has become the major place in producing silk in the country. The skills of producing the brocade, satin, thin silk, print and the embroidery of the Five Dynasties and Song Dynasty unearthed in Suzhou reached consummate level so as to be called treasure. During the Ming and Qing times, Suzhou was one of the famous "Three Weaving Regions in the Southern Part of the Changjiang River". The scale and the level of the folk and the royal weaving mills there were at the first place in the country. At present, the Suzhou silk has combined the traditional process with modern science and technology. It has been on sale through out the five continents and is well known all over the world. As a result, a silk museum at Suzhou-the home of silk in China, which is the long-cherished wish of the silk circle in China and the people of insight both at home and abroad, was created. Since 1981 when Chinese silk expert Qian Xiaoping put forward the suggestion to build the silk museum and in 1984 the museum formally started to be built, it formally opened its door in September 1991 after ten years of hard work. It has become the first professional museum of silk in China. Its establishment aims at developing the brilliant silk culture so as to carry forward the cause and forge ahead into the future.
  
  The museum is located at the temple and pagoda scenic spot in the northern part of Suzhou, occupying 9,410 square meters. The construction style is fresh and elegant with both cultural taste and artistic individuality. On entering the gate, visitors can see a curve-shaped wall with rich natural grace linking up the south and the north. It crosses vertically with the thoroughfare in the east-west direction representing the "Silk Road" with which it constructs the main body of the Silk Museum. On the wall, there are three theme statues of mulberry leaves picking girl, silk washing girl and silk weaving maid who are fair, slim and graceful and welcome the guests from all over the world.
  
  The museum is equipped with the preface hall, ancient times hall, silk worm breeding and mulberry growing room, weaving mil, brocade and embroidery garden, central room, hall of silk road and flower rain, silk stores of Ming and Qing styles, scientific research center and reproducing workshop etc. Among them, there are the exquisite exhibition of the historical relics of silk and the marvelous performance of the traditional operation; farmer's silkworm room and mulberry garden with natural interest and the duplication of the shop and store vista of Suzhou in the Ming and Qing dynasties. You can visit the museum and buy things as well. It is a multifunctional museum combining knowledge, appreciation and business into one body and combining the dynamic state with the static state.
  Location : No.661, People's Road, Suzhou City.
  Telephone : 0512-7539507, 7537941.
  Fax : 0512-753653.
  Postcode : 215001.
  Suzhou Embroidery Museum
  At the top of the four great famous embroideries in China, Suzhou embroidery has a long-standing history of about two thousand years up till now. The Suzhou Embroidery Museum with an exhibition hall of about 300 square meters has highly summarized the age-long art history of the Suzhou embroidery. From the 200 odd works on display visitors can appreciate the evolutionary process of the Suzhou embroidery art. The Hall of Having the Grain exhibits part of the real samples of the Suzhou embroidery from Western Han to Yuan Dynasty. The most precious one is the Suzhou embroidery cloth-wrapper for the sutra. The Hall of All Sides shows the Suzhou embroidery works in Ming and Qing times and the Suzhou embroidery works in modem time and present time. There are many fine works among them with the court dresses of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty as an example. Among the modern Suzhou embroidery works there are works of Shenshou-the outstanding embroidery artist of China. They possess high-degree appreciative value. The modern Suzhou embroidery works on display have fully foretold the brilliant future of the Suzhou embroidery art. The double-faced embroidery with different colors and different patterns etc manifest that the art of Suzhou embroidery is continuously making efforts on invention and exploration.
  Location : Jingde Road, Suzhou City.
  Folk Custom Museum
  Suzhou Folk Custom Museum is a professional museum engaged in collecting and exhibiting the historical relics of the local folk custom with an emphasis on the display of the folk custom of the ancient city. The museum has altogether 1,000 odd pieces of historical relics on display and in storage. There are five basic exhibition halls of <Custom of Marriage>, <Custom of Birthday Celebration>, <Custom of Dietary>, <Custom of Festivals>, <Custom of Wu Folk Songs>. The exhibition area is about 1,000 square meters. Suzhou Folk Custom Museum adopts a restored method in its display. It directly shows the visitor the solemn occasion of the traditional wedding ceremony and the birthday celebration in the Southern Part of Changjiang River. It also shows the rich and varied folk customs on festivals in the Wu region, the characteristic cooked dishes and local delicacies of the season on the land of fish and rice in the charming and beautiful Southern Part of Changjiang River.
  Traffic route : Get on board of the "East Line of Tourism" train or take No1 or No2 bus at the railway station to get off at Lion Forest Garden.
  Location : North side of "Lion Forest Garden" on the Park Road in Suzhou City.
  Business Hour : From 8 o'clock in the morning until 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon. It is also open on Saturday, Sunday and Holidays.
  Telephone : 0512-7271478, 7200616
  Postcode : 215001
  Museum of Traditional Operas
  Suzhou Museum of Traditional Operas is located in the east part of Suzhou City. It is a building in the style of Ming and Qing Dynasties. It has a horizontally inscribed board with golden words on a black background "Suzhou Museum of Traditional Operas" written by the former Chinese leader Chen Yun in the entrance hall. Every word is powerful and vigorous. The Tower for Music Makers with the pavilion and palace style is a classical ceremonial construction. The twelve music maker statues have the size of the real persons. Their expressions are true to life and they have been vividly portrayed. The classical stage is exquisite and magnificent. The dome of the stage has both the artistic quality and the scientific quality. It can produce a relatively perfect sound effect making the listeners feel intoxicated. The elegant and unsophisticated love hall has an old-fashioned mahogany table, the old-fashioned wooden armchairs, and the tea set of the Qing Dynasty etc with everything needed being there. At the time, silence is better than sound. It seems that you can hear the sound of pearls falling on a plate of jade. The museum has specially established three exhibition halls for the Su Opera, the Kun Opera and the Fingtan (storytelling and ballad singing in Suzhou dialect), as Suzhou is the birthplace of these three folk operas. There are also collections of many written documents, various block-printed editions and ancient books etc. there rich documents have fully exhibited the age-old history, style and characteristics of the art of Suzhou operas. It is acclaimed by visitors as the acme of perfection.
  Location : No.14 Zhangjia Lane, Middle, Suzhou City.
  Telephone : 7273741.
  Buddhism Museum
  Chinese Buddhism culture is a splendid jewel in the traditional cultural treasure house of China. Buddhism was spread into China from India during the two Han Dynasties. In the period of Chiwu in the Three Kingdoms times, Buddhism was spread to Suzhou (being called "Capital of Wu Kingdom" at the time). Buddhism has left profound cultural accumulation through one thousand and seven hundred odd years of inheriting and developing. It has become an important component of the Wu culture. The ten odd ancient monasteries preserved by now had respectively been the famous ritual places for various schools of the Chan Sect, the Pure-land School, the Vinaya School and the Tiantai Sect etc in history. The sutra collection, the musical instruments, the Buddhist statues, material objects and historical data left over through foreign intercommunion of the Buddhist monks, the works and treasured scrolls of calligraphy or paintings handed down by the eminent monks and great persons etc in each temple all displayed the veins of the sect and the beginning of the schools of the Buddhism in the middle Suzhou area and the origin and the source of the development of the Buddhist culture. The museum has been divided into eight parts. With the help of the written explanation, they use material objectives, pictures and models to show the historical remains and the real style and feature of the Buddhism in Suzhou. It gives a helpful hand in enhancing and developing the excellent traditional culture of Chinese nationality.
  Location : No.3, Chuanxin Street, Suzhou City.
  Telephone : 0512-5230561.
  Postcode : 215002.
  Garden Museum
  Suzhou Garden Museum was opened on September 26,1992. It has totally four rows of exhibition halls : Origin of the Garden, History of the Garden, Management of the Garden and the Enjoyment of the Garden. They fully and systematically tell about the origin, distribution, type, characteristics, evolution, development and the present situation etc of the Chinese gardens. They have used the modern technique of lamp, light and electricity, and have adopted the method of models, books and pictures, photos and material objectives etc to show the garden art with profound meaning and the traditional culture with along history in a vivid way.
  Location : No.178, Northeast Street, Suzhou City.
  Telephone : 0512-7546354, 7543378., Fax : 0512-7527181
  Postcode: 215001.
  
   

• Folk Customs and Local Conditions
  Families in the Lanes
  As alleys in Beijing and lanes in Shanghai, the life of Suzhou people is concentrated in lanes with pink walls and black tiles. In Suzhou, a river city, lanes are always connected with rivers. The often seen lanes on the water, washing on river pier, together with flowers, grass, birds and worms in small yard and soft Wu dialect make up a living picture of the life of ordinary people in Suzhou. In lanes between houses, water maintains the life of Suzhou in another way, that is wells. Up till the 70s, there were still 15,000 wells inside the urban Suzhou. Well platforms are the most basic, the smallest, but, at the same time, the most evenly spreading, the most extensive places for social activities of citizens in Suzhou, where the pattern is most free and communication is the most speedy and convenient.
  Folk Dragon-dance Performance
  In the homeland of dragon, dragon-dance is a tradition. It is dragon-dance that is the way to express happiness and celebration in festivals. Although it is said that there is dragon-dance throughout the country, it is the same as in music and architecture, the difference between the north and the south is obvious, with the north being strong and the south being soft. Anything extremely trong will becomes soft and delicate while it comes to Jiangnan River Village. Under the hands of women in the river village, the agile and brave dragon and its domineering movements will change into light and beautiful spiraling and swaying Not to say you have seen dragon-dance for innumerable times, the dragon-dance performed by women in the river village is very unique.
  The Apparel in the Region of Waters and Lakes
  The Apparel in the Region of Waters and Lakes is popular in villages in eastern Suzhou, such as Luzhi, Shengpu, Chefang, Xietang and Weiting, etc. The style popular in Luzhi is the most typical. After thousands of years of constant evolution and reformation, The Apparel in the Region of Waters and Lakes has become more and more perfect day by day, and has formed a complete set (8 articles) of make-up clothing ornaments: Triangle Head-wrapping, Dajin Pin Jie Coat, Flower-cloth Xiongdou, 100-pleat Skirt, Waist Binding, Chadang Flower Trousers, Shank Curling, 100-Na Embroidered Shoes. The Apparel in the Region of Waters and Lakes is adapted to the needs of labor requirements and living habits in its structure, and is ham onions with natural environment in its color. It is a set of clothing ornaments created purely by folks, combining natural, unsophisticated, elegant, easy and practical characteristics into one. It is a rare flower in China clothing ornaments culture, containing strong river village sentimentalism, demonstrating deep-level regional aesthetic standards, and arousing great interests of tourists throughout the world.
  The Bumper Harvest in the Autumn
  Each time when there appears a vast scene of colorfulness and tinted forests in Dongshan, Xishan, Yaoshang Villages in Western Outskirts of Suzhou, and fruit forests send out information of harvest to people, the autumn wind and slight rain will urge people to hurry harvesting their labor fruits. Oranges become red, Chinese chestnuts become ripe, Baiguo falls down, and it is busy in forests. Fruit farmers are busy in loading and carrying and the happiness of harvest appears on faces. The scene of Western Outskirts in Suzhou in autumn is really fascinating and attracts tourists from everywhere to come every year. There are beautiful mountains, pretty rivers and kind people here. During traveling here, tourists can't help joining the team of harvesting. It becomes a fashion for city residents to experience the way of living in the countryside, with villagers and sharing the happiness of harvesting. Carrying small fruit basket on your shoulder and walking on ginkgo leaves covered path in the forest, you can feel as if you were walking on golden down carpet, natural and easy. Beautiful mountains and rivers, fertile soils and hard-working people are expecting the scene of "The Bumper Harvest in the Autumn".
   

• Festival Celebration Activities
  Taihu Lake Plum Blossom Festival
  The Taihu Lake Plum Blossom Festival Celebration is held in the Linwudong Square, West Hill, Taihu Lake. Focused on the plum blossom, this festival sees all kinds of wonderful folk culture activities in a propitious and enthusiastic atmosphere. Visitors from all sides take great pleasure in Taihu Lake's water, the surrounding hills, and the fragrant flowers.
  Suzhou Tourist Festival
  Sponsored by the Suzhou Municipal Government, and undertaken by the Suzhou Tourism Management Bureau and the other concerned bureaus, the Suzhou Tourist Festival takes place annually from April to May, which spans 2 months and covers the whole Suzhou City. Focused on gardens, ancient cities and ecological tour of the region of hills and waters, Suzhou Tourist Festival holds all kinds of colorful activities, such as the "Spring of Jiangnan" (South of the River) Famous Flowers Display, the Famous Historical City-Wu Culture Show and Local Operas Joint Performances, "the Spring of Jiangnan" Celebration of the Ancient Town Tourist Festival, "the Spring of Jiangnan" Delicious Food Week, "the Spring of Jiangnan" Popular Sports Activities; "the Spring of Jiangnan" Exhibition of the Suzhou Specialties, the Ecological Tour Photograph-taking Competition and the evening activities during the Tourist Festival.
  Zhuozhengyuan Azalea Fair
  Suzhou Zhuozhengyuan, one of China's Top 4 Famous Gardens, hosts azalea Fair from March to May each year, exhibiting over 200 kinds and 10,000 pot of azalea. Spring azalea, Mao azalea and western azalea are in various forms and they are competing in beauty. Among them, the oldest one has a living history of over 400 years, which is very rare in Jiangnan. There will be photography, calligraphy and painting contests during the fair, providing opportunities of creation for fans of photography and fine arts.
  In attracts masses of tourists at home and abroad to come for appreciation.
  Huqiu Flower Fair
  The annual Huqiu Art Flower Fair is a tour program with spring characteristics launched by Huqiu Mountain Scene Area. It has been hosted for 4 sessions since '95. The Flower Fair exhibits the fascinating beauty of a great number of rare flowers, such as peony, tulip, Belgium azalea, lily. It has a fair artistic taste and forms a contrast and echo between spring and autumn, activity and inertia, and refined and popular tastes. It has become a new folk custom of Suzhou people to attend Flower Fair in spring and Temple Fair in autumn.
  Zhouzhuang International Tourism Festival
  Zhouzhuang International Tourism Art Festival is hosted in the ancient town of Zhouzhuang on April, 12th each year. The Art Festival hosts international art creation contest each year, on subject of river village and ancient town, in forms of photography, calligraphy, painting, literary art, art, craft and literature, etc. Meanwhile, the Fair resumes traditional folk activities with river village characteristics, such as Village Girls Dance, Lamp Boat, Fish Hawk, Lotus-fruit beating Box, Carrying Flower Basket and Ape Tea, etc. It has been developed into a festival celebration activity with both a congregation of world's famous artists, super artistic level and participation of ordinary people and good mass base. Zhouzhuang International Tourism Art Festival has been successfully hosted for 4 sessions, and at each session, there emerged a great numbers of works of high quality, high artistic level and extreme value. There fore, Zhouzhuang is also named as China Literature and Art Creation Base by the Association of China Literature and Art Circle, which makes good publicity of the Fair.
  Luzhi River Village Clothing Ornament Culture Festival
  The ancient town of Luzhi, located 15km away from the Eastern Outskirts of Suzhou, is famous as "China No.1 Bridge Village", with a history of 2500 years. It is designated as the focal scenery zone in Taihu Lake scenery area by the State Council. The longtime nourishing of River Village Culture not only created the peculiar "bridges, rivers and homes" scene in Luzhi, but also formed the River Clothing Ornament Culture of distinctive characteristics. The ancient town of Luzhi makes great efforts not only to develop industrial economy, but also to develop and protect tourist resources, investing a great amount of money to restore scenery spots in the ancient town. It restores the old appearance of the ancient town, establishes "River Village Clothing Ornament Exhibition" and sets up a River Village Clothing Ornament Showing Team. In order to make known "River Village Clothing Ornament Culture", the tourist brand peculiar to the ancient town, the ancient town of Luzhi sets to host "Luzhi River Village Clothing Ornament Culture and Tourism Festival" on the 28th of April each year, and use refined tourist product in the ancient town to attract tourists. During the festival, a clothing ornament showing team of 1000 women exhibits the River Village Clothing Ornament. There are performances of strong flavor of river village folk customs, such as steaming pie, embroidering cloth shoes and knitting. Folk customs performances are scattered everywhere. In order to support the Clothing Ornament Culture Festival, Luzhi also hosts activities of "Emotions for River Village" Writing Fair and "Luzhi Cup" International Photography Contest, etc. at the same time, which attracts a lot of fans of literature and art to come for creation.
  Shanghu Peony Fair
  Shanghu is located in Changshu, 40km away from Suzhou. It is temperate in climate and moderate in soil here, with a long history of planting peony. In the Shanghu Peony Refined Product Gardens, there are 5000 ground-planting peonies of over 180 breeds, among which there are rare peonies, such as dead-branch peony, green peony, black peony and green-hill white snow, etc. There are rich tourist resources and human scenery around Shanghu, such as the National Forest Park-Yushan Mountains, the ancient temple with a history of 1000 years-Xingfu Temple, "Lu Dang Kindling"-Shajia Bang and tombs and former residence museums of Jiang Shang, Yan Zi and Weng Tonghe, etc. In order to obtain its own focal tourist product for Shanghu, attract tourists at home and abroad to come to Changhu spring traveling and visiting temples and promote the development of tourist industry of Changhu, since 1988, succeeding Luoyang, Henan and Heze. Shangdong, Changhu has hosted Shanghu Lake Peony Fair with great influences in Hu Ning region. On March 31st each year, it is very crowded in Shanghu Park. Tourist from all over the world come to see green mountains and rivers to their hearts content and appreciate the beautiful spring. Sightseeing and visiting temples make tourists drunken in the atmosphere of "national beauties are drunk in the day and heavenly fragrance dyes clothing at night'.
  Tongli Spring Tourist Culture Festival
  Tongli Spring Tourist Culture Festival is jointly hosted by 8 units, including Association of China Film Experts, Jiangsu Province Tourism Bureau, Suzhou City Tourism Bureau and Government of Wujiang City, etc. It is held in the ancient town of Tongli from the 18th to 19th of April each year. During the Culture Festival, there are activities such as Opening Ceremony with the River Village folk characteristics, Retrospective of Film and TV works from Tongli Film and TV Base, Union of China Famous Film and TV Directors and Actors Actresses, Seminar of Tongli Film and TV works, etc. Meanwhile, there are exhibitions of folk customs, local opera and folk art in the ancient town of Tongli. With large scale high level, mass participants and good publicity, Tongli Spring Tourist Culture Festival Wins praise from tourists. Hosting of Tongli Spring Tourist Culture Festival greatly promotes the development of Tongli's tourist industry. The amount of tourists to Tongli increases year by year, tourism receipt in foreign exchange and tourism income are increasing steadily and tourist industry rises up to be a backbone industry in the development of the ancient town's economy.
  The Main Active ties during the Suzhou Tourist Festival

China Suzhou International Silk Tourist Festival
China Suzhou International Silk Tourist Festival is a large celebration activity, sponsored by the National Tourism Administration, the Textile Federation of the Trade Unions, the Silk Head Office and the Suzhou Municipal Government, and undertaken by Suzhou Foreign Trade and Economy Committee and Suzhou Tourism Management Bureau. Held biyearly from Sept. 25 to Oct 20, it provides various opportunities through tourism for the trade and economy of this city. A series of celebration activities with local cultural charm are being held, including large economy and trade talks, the Tiger Hill Temple Fair and the Tianping Red Maple Art Festival, to attract foreign investments and to promote sales.

Tianping Mountain in Western Suzhou is famous for its red maple, rare stone and clear spring Due to the openness of new highways; Tianping is 10km nearer from the downtown. At the south foot of Tianping, over 170 maple planted in Ming Wanli years and those planted recent years congregate into a forest. Late in autumn, the maples are red as rosy clouds, which makes a peculiar natural scene in Tianping. It has become a popular tourist project to go to Tianping to sightsee maples in late autumn. Red Maple Art Festival organizes performances with local characteristics, such as Chinese opera, art and craft, and meanwhile hosts contests related to Tianping Red Maple, such as fine arts, writing poem, essay, photography and calligraphy, etc.

Tianping Mountain in Western Suzhou is famous for its red maple, rare stone and clear spring Due to the openness of new highways, Tianping is 10km nearer from the downtown. At the south foot of Tianping, over 170 maple planted in Ming Wanli years and those planted recent years congregate into a forest. Late in autumn, the maples are red as rosy clouds, which makes a peculiar natural scene in Tianping. It has become a popular tourist project to go to Tianping to sightsee maples in late autumn. Red Maple Art Festival organizes performances with local characteristics, such as Chinese opera, art and craft, and meanwhile hosts contests related to Tianping Red Maple, such as fine arts, writing poem, essay, photography and calligraphy, etc.

Timetable of Main Festival Activities in Suzhou