Suzhou is my home town.It is a city on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Lake Taihu in the province of Jiangsu,China.The city is renowned for its beautiful stone bridges,pagodas,and meticulously designed gardens which have contributed to its status as a great tourist attraction.Since the Song Dynasty (960-1279),Suzhou has also been an important centre for China's silk industry and continues to hold that prominent position today.The GDP per capita was ¥79,406 (ca.US$10,087) in 2006,ranked no.5 among 659 Chinese cities.
Suzhou,the cradle of Wu culture,is one of the oldest towns in the Yangtze Basin.2500 years ago in the late Shang Dynasty,local tribes who named themselves "Gou Wu" lived in the area which would become the modern city of Suzhou.
Suzhou is conveniently located on the Jinghu Railway linking Shanghai and Nanjing,the provincial capital,to both of which there is hourly railway service.Suzhou Railway Station is among the busiest passenger stations in China,having 139 trains stopping daily.T-Trains only take 45 minutes to Shanghai and an hour and half to Nanjing.Driving options include the Jiangsu-Shanghai Expressway,the Yangtze Riverine Expressway,the Suzhou-Jiaxin-Hangzhou Expressway.In 2005,the new Suzhou Outer Ring was completed,linking the peripheral county-level cities of Taicang,Kunshan,and Changshu.By water,Suzhou is connected with Zhangjiagang,Luzhi,Liujia and Changshou.
Although Wuxi Shuofang Airport and Guangfu United Airlines Airport serve as two municipal airports,and the State Council approved of the construction of an airport exclusively serving Suzhou in 2003,air transportation from Suzhou continues to be at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport in Shanghai.
The chinese opera Kunqu originates in the Suzhou region,as does the much later Suzhou Opera.Ballad-singing,or Suzhou pingtan,is a local form of storytelling that mixes singing (accompanied on the pipa) with portions in spoken dialect.