In ancient times, Tiger Hill was once an island which would appear above sea level occasionally when waves were low. After hundreds of years, the whole land of that area changed so that the Hill emerged from the sea. After another hundreds of years, other land had also emerged from the sea, and the coastal line of the region had become farther and farther from the Tiger Hill. It means that Tiger Hill is no longer an isolated hill in the middle of the sea.

Nowadays, there are more and more constructions on Tiger Hill in order to make it an attractive tourist attraction. However, if you would like to see a more natural Tiger Hill, you should grab the chance to visit this Hill before it is added with some artificial things. Tiger Hill is not a tall peak, nor is it a very beautiful, unique scenic area. However, there are still a lot of interesting animals and plants for people to visit. There are also a lot of poems left by poets in the buildings existing in the Tiger Hill. In the past, there were actually some people living in Tiger Hill and there were some people thinking that the Hill is a certain kind of wonderland given by the god. Why would they think so? It is not sure. Maybe you would be able to find the truth when you visit the Hill.

Although there were some poets writing poems on the walls of the buildings in the Tiger Hill, you are not allowed to do so nowadays because it is actually not very good for the sustainable development of the Hill.

Xishan Scenic Area is one of the most important components of Taihu Lake Scenic Area. It is based on landscape, flower and fruit bushes. On the other hand, since it was part of the main cities in ancient times, there are a lot of heritages. Inside the Scenic Area in Xishan, there are as many as 20 tourist spots. Some people said that in order to visit the whole Xishan Scenic Area, it would take as long as about 3 days! Therefore, it is really worthwhile for you to visit. If you are worrying that you need to travel every day to the Area to visit all the spots, don’t panic. There are some local hotels so that you could stay there for a few days and visit the spots when you wake up. Of course, this is basing on the assumption that you are not going on a package tour.

In Xishan Scenic Area, there would be a lot of people patrolling around to protect the Scenic Area from damage of the tourists. Therefore, you should behave well in the Area and you should not try to leave any rubbish all over the Area. Otherwise, you might be punished.

Despite the fact that some restrictions might be imposed on you when you visit this Scenic Area, you are still allowed to take photos freely in this area. Therefore, you should bring your camera to capture every unforgettable moments of your trip. If you would like our next generations to enjoy the view of Xishan again, you should obey the rules.

In the future, Xishan Scenic Area is expected to improve its scenery in order to attract more visitors because tourism has become one of the main goals of the Suzhou government.

Lion Forest was built in the Yuan Dynasty. At the year in 1341, monks such as the Zen Master arrived at Suzhou for preaching. Therefore, his disciples decided to buy a large land and built a house in the forest for him to live. When Zen master came, he was so happy and he decided to call the forest Lion Forest to commemorate his master and he decided to stay in this place.

However, after the death of Zen Master, his disciples left the garden and so the Lion Forest was abandoned. The houses and the temple became very old and dirty. During the Ming Dynasty, another monk passed through the forest and found the temple. He decided to renovate it and after years of hard work, he successfully restored the beauty of the Lion Forest. Moreover, he added some Buddhist features into the forest, making it more unique.

During the Qing Dynasty, the government decided to renovate the Lion Forest once again. The renovated Lion Forest was more elegant and it was more attractive. After the founding of People’s Republic of China, the central government decided to open up the Lion Forest to the public in 1954. Therefore, such a beautiful forest can now be seen.

When you visit Suzhou, you would probably find that there are a lot of places with beautiful natural scenery. However, in Lion Forest, you would be able to see how artificial architecture fuse with natural forest views, and it is much more interesting.

Unfortunately, after the death of this official, his son was so stupid that he lost the whole garden through a gamble. Since then, the garden’s owner changed quite frequently. However, just because it was changed so frequently, there was not much reconstruction work done on the garden.

After the liberation, the Communist Party as well as the government worked very hard to carry out maintenance work to restore the view of the garden because although not much change was brought to the garden, the Garden still gradually worn out. Luckily, after the hard work of the government, the Garden became fine again and the renovated Administrator’s Garden was formally opened in 1952 to the public.

The Administrator’s Garden is located in Suzhou City’s No. 178 Northeast Street, covering an area of 52,000 square meters. The whole Garden is divided into four parts, which are the eastern, central, western as well as the residential parts. There are a lot of interesting plants in the Garden, which are unique in China. There are also a lot of unique buildings in the garden’s residential part. The houses are beautifully decorated to make the people living there feel more joyful.

Therefore, Administrator’s Garden is one of the places that you should try to visit when you come to Suzhou. You would be able to enjoy the relaxing garden view as well as the beautiful artificial buildings. Of course, you have to pay some entrance fees in order to maintain the renovation of the Garden. However, it was just about 60 yuan, which is really cheap. You would surely find it worthwhile.

In Chinese, there is a saying that “In heaven, there is a paradise. In Suzhou and Hangzhou, there is also a paradise”. If this is true, Wuxian in Suzhou is definitely the paradise of the paradise.

According to Suzhou people, “The best view of Taihu is in Wuxian.” Among the 2400 square km of Taihu Lake water, three-fourth was located in Wuxian. In the lake, there are 72 peaks, and 58 of them are located in Wuxian. Among the 13 Taihu Lake Scenic Area announced by the State Council,6 of them like Dongshan, Xishan, Guangfu, Straight Angle, Shek Wu, etc, belong to the territory of Wuxian. Therefore, Wuxian has an unalienable relationship with Taihu.

When you visit Taihu, you would be able to see a lot of beautiful views. One of the most famous ones must be the sunset view. When you go to Taihu at late afternoon, and stay there for a few hours till evening, you would be able to witness the sunset, and see the sun gradually disappear from the sky. Such experience is very rare in other part of China.

Of course, you could also hire some boatmen and travel across the lake and reach some of the peaks. When you climb up the peaks, you would be able to see the whole picture of Wuxian, one of the oldest towns of Suzhou. It is really enjoyable to see that the whole town is beneath you, right?

When you are tired, you could return to Wuxian, and you would be able to enjoy a lot of delicious food, like the crabs from Taihu, as well as other fishes. They are all delicious.

Therefore, if you have time to visit Suzhou, you could try to spare some time to visit Taihu in Wuxian Town. You would surely fall in love with this little town as well as the beautiful view of the lake.

In fact, the building style of this Pavilion is quite unique. Before entering the garden, you have to walk across a little bridge, because there are streams surrounding the pavilion. It is different from other pavilion and gardens in China. Therefore, some people praised such building style as very interesting.

After walking into the pavilion, you would be able to see a lot of mountains as well as some tall trees. These plants are planted alongside the road, so that you would not be able to see the whole picture of the pavilion and the garden at any places of this pavilion. However, this is the interesting point. Just because you cannot see clearly the whole picture of the garden, you would be more curious to explore and to walk forward to see more about the garden. This is, according to some Chinese people, one of the unique features of a traditional Chinese garden.

From past to now, there are a lot of poets visiting this Wave Pavilion. Some of them might create poems immediately after seeing the beautiful natural scenery in the Pavilion. Therefore, you would actually be able to see a lot of artistic poems inside the Pavilion.

When you read the poems, you would understand more about the garden, the beauty of the garden. On the other hand, you would also be able to feel the poet’s feeling. Usually, these poets would go to the Pavilion when they feel sad. If you know more about their backgrounds, you would understand why they would write such sad poems.

Therefore, Wave Pavilion is surely one of the most interesting places that you should not miss when you have the chance to visit Suzhou.

The first phase of the wonderland, the Water World, covers an area of eight hectares, which is located at south of Lion Rock. A total investment of 60 million yuan from Suzhou New District Economic Development Corporation had bee put to construct the World. There is a combination of an elevated main chute, building wave pool, play pool and drift River. It provides a lot of most advanced equipments, and a modern water playground for the Wonderland to attract millions of visitors each year.

Since the opening of the Water World in July 1995, the Wonderland actually has attracted a lot of people, especially youngsters, to enter the Wonderland. The entrance record even breaks the one in Chinese amusement industry, and it proves that water theme park in eastern China can become an intensive summer tourist destination.

Another part of the Wonderland, the Joy World, also attracts many visitors each year. It is located at the eastern part of the Lion Rock, covering an area of 54 hectares. The main business of the park was operated by the Suzhou Park Development Co., Ltd, which is a Sino-foreign joint venture investment. In this part of the Wonderland, the format is like Disney. There area lot of places for children to play, and there are cartoon characters walking around the Joy World to attract children to take a photo with them.

When you visit the Suzhou Wonderland, you would discover that it is really wonderful and you might be willing to visit it more than once!

Lingering Garden is divided into four pars, which are the central, east, north and west part. The central part is mainly composed of mountains and rivers, and they are actually the essence of the original Lingering Garden. The central part is also regarded as the most important part of the whole park. The eastern, western and northern parts of Lingering Garden were added by Emperor Guangxu.

When you enter the Garden and go over a two-tier small courtyard, you can reach the central part of the garden. In fact, the central part can further be divided into the central east and west part. In the central western part, it is famous for the good scenery. On the other hand, the central eastern part is famous for its buildings.

Lingering Garden is very important in Suzhou history because it witness the fall of Suzhou during the Battle of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. On the other hand, it was one of the gardens which was constructed and renovated by two distinct dynasties. Therefore, fusion of building styles of different dynasties could be seen in this garden. If you have time to visit Suzhou, you should try to visit this garden, and it would surely widen your horizons.

When you examine the temple’s architecture, you would be able to find that the temple previously used a stupa as the main part of the whole construction group. During the Sui Dynasty, the focus of the temple gradually shifted to the center, and the stupa was used as a backup of the main building. If you study the basic history of Chinese religion, you would find the Buddhism of China actually originated from India. Therefore, in this Hanshan Temple, some people said that they had found some Indian building style.

In Suzhou, there are a lot of temples. However, there are not many temples which could have such a long history as Hanshan Temple. Therefore, it is very worthwhile to visit Hanshan Temple if you are visiting Suzhou. There are a lot of old-style towers as well as flats. In Buddhism, these towers have special meaning and you would only be able to know more about them when you visit the temple because it is hard to describe just through the use of words.

Visiting Hanshan Temple is free. However, if you appreciate this temple, and you would like to contribute to the preservation of the temple, you are welcomed to donate some money to the authority through some boxes put inside the temple so that the authority could use the money to maintain the operation of the temple.

If you are fond of Buddhism, and you would like to know more about Buddhism in ancient China, Hanshan Temple is definitely one of your destinations in Suzhou. If you are not very fond of that but you would like to know more about ancient Chinese building, this place is also suitable for you to visit. I hope you would enjoy your trip!