Built as early as the 4th year of Zhengde reign under the Ming Dynasty (1509 AD), the Humble Administrator's Garden, covering 5.2 hectares, is one of the four most famous gardens in China. It is divided into the eastern, middle and western parts. Part of the building complex has been converted for use as the Suzhou Garden Museum. Centering upon the broad expanse of a lake, the poetic and picturesque garden landscapes and waterscapes with exquisite buildings and luxuriant vegetation, which seem to be changing at every step and awakening reminiscences of the Venetian scenes in the area south of the Lower Yangtze, are archaic, rustic, extensive and naturalistic. On the whole, it has kept the style of the Ming Dynasty and has long been regarded as the finest specimen of the classical garden in the area south of the Lower Yangtze.

Suzhou is a city with not many Muslim population. The Taipingfang Mosque is the only mosque in the city proper area. Halal restaurants in Suzhou mostly serve Xinjiang Uyghur cuisine. IslamiChina has summarized the following Suzhou Muslim travel tips to our Muslim brothers and sisters to travel Suzhou during a short period of time.

Tour Itinerary Planning

For Muslim Business Travelers

If you are in Suzhou for a business trip and you have one day free to travel around Suzhou, it is recommended that you visit one of the Gardens in Suzhou. The best known garden in Suzhou is Humble Administrator’s Garden which is listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO. Then you may have a 30 minute cruise on the ancient Grand Canal. Since Suzhou is famous for the production of silk, you are suggested to visit Suzhou’s Silk Factory. Once tour is over, you may join local Muslims at Taipingfang Mosque for Salat prayers.

For Muslim leisure travelers

3 Days and 2 Nights Suzhou Muslim Tour is the best choice for Muslim leisure travelers because this tour itinerary allows you to have enough time to know both Suzhou’s culture heritages as well as Muslim heritages. You are not in a hurry to get around Suzhou from one place to another. Please check IslamiChina’s Suzhou Muslim Tour 3 Days for details.

Accommodations

There is no Muslim hotel in Suzhou, you may choose to stay at international brand name hotels such as Sheraton, Hilton, Holiday Inns and dine at local Halal restaurants in Suzhou.

Halal Restaurants

The easiest way to find a Halal restaurant in China is to look for local mosque. Mosque is always located in the center of a Muslim community, no doubt, Halal restaurants can be found around Mosque serving local Halal food. In Suzhou, Halal restaurants are also located in other part of the city serving Southeast Asian Cuisine, Turkish Cuisine, local Guangzhou Halal cuisine and Xinjiang Uyghur Cuisine.

Mosques

Suzhou Taipingfang Mosque is the only mosque in Suzhou city area. It was rebuilt in 1980’s on the original site of the old mosque. Like most newly constructed mosques in China, it is in Arabic style.

Money Exchange

You can exchange traveler's checks or cash at most banks, and most 5-star and 4-star hotels always have a money exchange counter. You can also get a cash advance on your credit card on ATM machine. The exchange rate all over China are the same fixed by Bank of China. To change money, you have to have your passport at hand. If you want to change money in a hotel, you usually have to be a guest there. Sometimes if you are not a guest in a hotel but need to change money there, you can just say a random room number, but this doesn't always work. Remember to keep the exchange slip well because you need this slip to change the Chinese Yuan back to your currency if you do have this need at the end of the tour. At present, the RMB is not exchangeable on the International market, so it is only usable within the country. So when you are changing money, don't change too much, because it is difficult to change back into other currencies. To change RMB back into your home currency, you must retain the exchange slips that are given to you at the bank or money exchange counter.

Suzhou is famous not only for the exquisite landscape gardens with traditional architectural style but also for its exquisite-made handicrafts as well as excellent local products. Being the silk capital of China, Suzhouis the place to buy the best quality Chinese Silk and Su Embroidery products. The variety and quality of silk products in Suzhou is almost unbeatable in China. This is the place to buy silk dresses, silk fans, silk jackets, silk pajamas, silk quilt, silk underwear and traditional Chinese dress of Qipao. There are tailors in Suzhou who can make a silk dress for you in a couple of days and most cloth shops have in house tailors.  When you are in Suzhou, please try shopping at the following streets:Guanqianjie Street, Shiquanjie Street and Shilu Shopping Street.

Suzhou Embroidery

Thread lanes, brocade mills, embroidery flower streets, etc., in the city. That proved the prosperity of Suzhou embroidery. Some lived by embroidering. Daughters in rich families were engaged in it as a way of killing time and molding their experiment. That’s how “popular embroidery”, “boudoir embroidery” and “palace embroidery” came into being.

Suzhou Brocade

Suzhou Song Brocade with its magnificent color, delicate patterns and softness, Nanjing Yun Brocade, Sichuan Su Brocade are honored as the most famous brocades in China. As early as in the Qin and Han dynasties, folk artisans carried deep researches in brocade. In Tang dynasty, there was famous brocade in Suzhou.

Shilu Pedestrian Street

Shilu Pedestrian Street is located in Jinchang District of Suzhou City, it is named after “Store Road” in English as it paved with stone in late Qing Dynasty. It is said that it had already been very prosperous in ancient time. Since late 2003, Suzhou Municipal Government injected a lot of capital to reconstruct the street.

Shiquan Street

Shiquan Street is located in hotel area in Suzhou ancient city, famous Nanlin Restaurant, Suzhou Restaurant, Nanlin Hotel as well as the classical garden of The Master-of-Nets Garden are on this street. As tourism of Suzhou is flourishing and old streets here are reconstructed, the rebuilt Shiquan Street looks very brand-new.

Located in the center of Yangtze River delta area, Suzhou has been the transportation hub of East China since ancient China. The Sui Dynasty constructed Grand Canal is still busy with boats transporting daily goods as well as construction material. Suzhou is located 80km away from Shanghai; therefore you can access Suzhou by flying to Shanghai Pudong and Hongqiao airports. The Wuxi airport is also very close to Suzhou (only 23km). As to the land transportation, the Su-Jia-Hang Highway, Hu-Ning Highway, and Hu-Ning Railway make Suzhou one of the most accessible destinations in the Yangtze River Delta Region. As to the waterway, the Grand Canal crosses Suzhou from north to South and provides convenient waterway transportation.

Getting to Suzhou by Air

There is no airport in Suzhou. However, Suzhou can be reached by Wuxi Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Shanghai Hongqiao Airport. The distance between Suzhou and Wuxi Airport is 23 km, about 30 minutes by driving. The distance between Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Suzhou is 146 km while it is 88 km from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport to Suzhou.

Getting to Suzhou by Train

Ever since Qing Dynasty, Suzhou had been equipped with the railway station. It was originally built in 1906 and opened to public in 1908. At that time, the main building in this station only covered 205 square meters. Then in the following years, the station was destroyed and rebuilt for several times. The current station was built in 1979 and became a first class railway station under the jurisdiction of Shanghai Railways Bureau.

Getting around Suzhou by City Bus

Most of the buses in Suzhou are automated collection buses. Usually, the ordinary buses will charge 1 yuan per person, while the air-conditioned buses will charge 2 yuan. As a hot tourist city, the tour buses in Suzhou almost cover all the beautiful sightseeing places, such as Humble Administrator’s Garden, the Tiger Hill, the Master-of Nets Garden, Baoen Temple and so on.

Getting around Suzhou by Taxi

During years of development, Suzhou has become more and more prosperous; hence, the number of taxi in Suzhou is growing day by day. Generally, the types of taxi consist of Santana and Passat, which serve consumers day and night. Suzhou Taxi adopts dual charge system which additionally charges 50% of empty-car fare after mileage exceeding 5 kilometers.

Suzhou, located on the eastern coast of China, carries the monsoon climate of the humid subtropical climate zone. Suzhou enjoys abundant sunlight, a long frost-free period, and high temperatures accompanied by ideal rains.

The average annual temperature in Suzhou is 15.9℃, but July reached an average high 28.2℃ and January a low of 3.6℃. The year’s precipitation inSuzhou amounts to around 1110.6 mm, with about 128 rainy days. During June every year, it rains the heaviest and longest.

Spring (March - May): with an average temperature of 14.2℃ however the temperature doesn’t maintain itself during the entire length of spring. April can have temperatures under 0℃.

Summer (June - August): the hottest season of the year with an average temperature of 26.6℃. June is the rain season; July is the hottest month and can reach a maximum temperature of 35℃.

Autumn (September - November): with the average temperature of 17.6℃, the season starts with days of over 30℃and cools as September arrives.

Winter (December - February): The coldest weather is felt during late January (as low as -8℃), but winter’s average temperature is of 4.4℃. In recent years, winter has not shown itself to be as cold.

Suzhou is a city located in the center of the Yangtze River delta area and on the shores of Lake Taihu with a history of 2,500-year-old. The natural scenery of hills and waters in Suzhou is as charming as a delicate beauty. Of the whole area, 10 percent is cultivated fields, 30 percent hills, and the rest covered with water. The poetic and picturesque Suzhou gardens are a typical demonstration of simple elegance, with intriguing scenes found in every season and in all weathers. The folks here are honest, good-natured, friendly and hospitable---a tradition from times of yore.

Today’s Suzhou is an open city with developed economy and frequent exchanges with the outside world. It has been officially declared part of “the coastal economic open zone of the Yangtze Delta”. Geographically, Suzhou is located at the northern edge of the subtropical zone. It has a clear distinction of 4 seasons in a year. With a yearly average temperature of 16 degree centigrade, Suzhou’s climate is very moderate.

Suzhou was named Wu in the ancient times. The city has a rich history of 2,500 yeas. First built in 514 B.C, King Helu of Wu State built his capital here known as the “Great city of Helu”, and since then the city’s site and scale have remained virtually unchanged, making Suzhou a rare city of historical and cultural renown in the world. 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.

Adjoining Shanghai City to the east, Wuxi City to the west, Zhejiang Province to the south and facing the Yangtze River to the north, it covers an area of 8,488.42 square kilometers, 8.27% of the whole province. The city proper covers 392 square kilometers, among which 74 square kilometers is the newly added district of the city, 14.2 square kilometers is the old city.