The historic town lies within a rectangular moat
formed by canals. The city's clear grid of streets
and waterways makes Suzhou a relatively easy place
in which to get your bearings.
Renmin Lu ,
the main street, bulldozes south through the
centre from the
train station , which is
just to the north of the moat. Across the street
from the station, along the canal, there's a
tourist
office (daily 8.30am-5pm) offering brochures
and enthusiastic information on day trips and
transportation links in the area - although the
staff's English is limited. Next door to the
office, across from the train station's soft-seat
waiting room, is a small jetty where you can sign
up for
boat tours along the Grand Canal,
either south to Pan Men or northwest to Hu Qiu (¥30
per person for groups; entire boat for about ¥150
for lone travellers). Either trip takes about two
hours return. For now, there are no trips which
combine visits to both Pan Men and Hu Qiu, though
the tour operators are thinking about starting a
service in the near future. Most facilities for
the traveller are located on or near Renmin Lu,
including the
post office , the
Bank of
China and the
PSB . The traditional
commercial centre of the city lies around
Guanqian
Jie , halfway down Renmin Lu, an area of
cramped, animated streets thronged with small
shops, tea houses and restaurants. A newer,
smarter shopping area has also developed outside
the northwestern part of the moat around
Shi Lu
, while the area of town due west of the moat is
the modern, ugly
Xincheng .
Nearly all travellers arrive by train ,
Suzhou being on the main Shanghai-Nanjing rail
line and served by frequent trains to and from
both cities. Perhaps because Suzhou is a major
tourist destination, hotel touts here are much
more aggressive than elsewhere in China - the best
strategy to shake them off is to ignore them
completely. Buses #1 and #20 take you into town
from just east of the train station. Some private minibuses
also use the train station square as their
terminus, for example services to and from Wuxi
and points on Tai Hu.
Suzhou has two main bus stations: the Beimen
bus station , which has hourly connections
with Shanghai and Wuxi as well as a thrice-daily
service to Zhouzhuang, is directly to the east of
the train station. The Nanmen bus station ,
with buses to points south including Hangzhou and
Wenzhou, is at the southern end of Renmin Lu (take
bus #1 to get into the centre). Very near the
Nanmen bus station is the passenger dock
for canal boats to and from Hangzhou. A third bus
station travellers might use is the Wuxian bus
station in the far south of the town, one
large block south of the moat (city bus #1 also
passes here). This is the base for buses to and
from local towns such as Tongli and Zhouzhuang.
There is no airport at Suzhou (the nearest is
at Shanghai, accessible in about an hour by taxi),
though there is a CAAC office for bookings.
