苏州Suzhou

Suzhou sits in the Yangtze River delta, half an hour west of Shanghai by train. It is one of the oldest cities in China — founded around 514 BC — and grew wealthy on silk, rice, and the Grand Canal, which still threads through its old town in a lattice of waterways and stone bridges.

The city is best known for its classical gardens, a tradition of miniature landscape design refined over roughly a thousand years. Nine of them are UNESCO World Heritage sites; the finest, like the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the Master of the Nets Garden, compress mountains, water, and architecture into a few courtyards. The local arts run in the same register: pingtan storytelling, kunqu opera, and a cuisine that leans sweet and seasonal.