Suzhou
is located in the south of Jiangsu province, some
50 miles west of Shanghai, along
the old Grand Canal. The city has been famous for its gardens
for many centuries. According
to a Chinese proverb says: “In
heaven there is paradise. On earth there
are Suzhou and Hangzhou.”
Suzhou has also long been noted for its beautiful women. The city
is
dotted with lakes and ponds connected by a spider's web of canals.
And all the canals are lined with whitewashed houses with
gray-tiled roofs.
The
canals of the town eventually join up with the famous local waterway
known as the Grand Canal, located to the west of the city. It is
believed to be the largest internal waterway in the world, and was
originally constructed to carry tribute grain from the Yangzi
plain to the capital. Marco Polo, who visited Suzhou in the 13th
century, wrote that “the
great Khan... has made a huge canal of great width and depth from river
to river and from lake to lake and made the water flow along it so that
it looks like
a big river.
By this means it is possible to go ... as far as Khan-balik” (as
Beijing was known in the Yuan Dynasty). Although the canal is not
used for long-distance transport today,
it is still heavily used by a great number of flat-bottomed boats under
sail and engine power conveying agricultural produce to nearby towns.
THE
GRAND CANAL
Suzhou is one of the oldest
towns in the Yangzi
basin. It was founded in the fifth century B.C., when the King of Wu, He
Lu, made it the capital of his Kingdom. The King is said to be
buried on Tiger Hill, a well-known landmark.
The town inherited
its current name in 589,
in the Sui Dynasty, and underwent considerable development in
the Tang and Song
dynasties. As
early as the Song Dynasty, Suzhou had
about the same size as it is today.
Some of the city’s
famous gardens were first established
in those days as well, when Suzhou had already become famous for
silk weaving.
Many of the famous
gardens built
as early as the 10th century are still
intact, and some have been restored to their former beauty. A
visit to these gardens could
be one of the highlights of one’s
visit to China.
TIGER HILL
Tiger Hill, or Hu Qiu, a few miles northwest of the town, is very
popular among visitors. It is supposedly the burial place of the King of
Wu.
Two different reasons
are given for the name of the hill. One is that the entrance gate
resembles the mouth of a tiger, and the pagoda on the top of the hill
its tail. The other is that when the King of Wu was buried on top of the
hill, a tiger is said to have appeared there.
On top of the hill is
an imposing structure--the pagoda of the Yun Yan (Cloud Rock) Temple
built in 961. It is listed as one of the special historical sites under
State protection. The temple courtyard is the highest point on the hill
and commands a grand
view.
COLD MOUNTAIN TEMPLE
(Hanshansi)
The
temple is located on the outskirts of Suzhou on a small canal
crossed by an old humpbacked bridge. Green foliage hangs down over the
saffron walls. The
beautiful scenery has inspired many poets throughout history to write
memorable poems. In fact, it owes its fame to the poem
“Overnight Stay at Feng Qiao” by Zhang Ji, a Tang Dynasty poet.
The temple's name comes
from the hermit Han Shan, a Buddhist poet, sometime during the Tang
Dynasty.
PAGODAS
Suzhou has many
pagodas, the most conspicuous being the twin pagodas at
the Twin
Pagoda Temple, or Shuangtasi. The temple no longer exists, and the site
is now occupied by a school.
On the outskirts of
town, in the southwest, one
can find the Temple of Good Omen Light, or Ruiguangsita. The
temple no longer exists. Only the seven-story brick pagoda remains.
Another pagoda stands
beside what was once the Temple
of Gratitude, or Paoensi, also
known as the Northern Temple, or Bei Si. The temple was founded
in the third century A.D., and has since been destroyed and rebuilt
several times. All that remains today
is the nine-story pagoda thought to date from the 13th century.
GARDENS
Suzhou is best known for its landscaped gardens, over 150 of
them. Suzhou’s
gardens are not known for their size, but their delicate designs,
containing hills and ponds, terraces, corridors, towers, and almost
everything that is needed in an “imperial
garden.”
Among
them, the
Liu Garden, which covers about 10 acres, is the largest and one
of the most attractive. It was one of the few gardens that escaped
destruction during the Taiping
Rebellion in the mid-19th
century.
The garden was first
laid out during the Ming Dynasty by a civil servant who also had the
West Garden, or Xi Yuan, constructed.
