Sights in Jiāngsū
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Sūzhōu Museum
This IM Pei—designed museum is a soothing contrast of water, bamboo and straight lines in a stunning geometric interpretation of a Sūzhōu garden. Inside is a fascinating array of jade, ceramics, wooden carvings, textiles and other displays, all with good English captions. Look out for the Boxwood statue of Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin), dating from the republican period. An in-depth look at the scholars and their lifestyle of the period is particular fascinating (containers for crickets? A mahogany birdcage with a dainty porcelain water cup? Did these guys actually do any study?). Draconian entry rules apply: flip-flops wearers get turned away. Come early as there are limited…
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Míng Xiàolíng Tomb
On the southern slope of Zǐjīn Mountain is the 14th-century Míng Xiàolíng of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the only Ming emperor to be buried outside of Běijīng.The first section of the 618m avenue leading up to the mausoleum takes you along the 'spirit path', lined with stone statues of lions, camels, elephants and horses. There's also a mythical animal called a xiè zhì – which has a mane and a single horn on its head – and a qílín, which has a scaly body, a cow's tail, deer's hooves and one horn. These stone animals drive away evil spirits and guard the tomb.
As you enter the first courtyard, a paved pathway leads to a pavilion housing several stelae. The next ga…
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Sun Yatsen Mausoleum
Dr Sun is recognised by the communists and Kuomintang alike as the father of modern China. He died in Běijīng in 1925, leaving behind an unstable Chinese republic. He had wished to be buried in Nánjīng, no doubt with greater simplicity than the Ming-style tomb his successors built for him. Despite this, less than a year after his death, construction of this mausoleum began.
The tomb itself lies at the top of an enormous stone stairway – a breathless 392 steps. At the start of the path stands a dignified stone gateway built of Fújiàn marble, with a roof of blue-glazed tiles. The blue and white of the mausoleum symbolise the white sun on the blue background of the Kuomin…
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Taiping Heavenly Kingdom History Museum
Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping, had a palace built in Nánjīng, but the building was completely destroyed when Nánjīng was taken in 1864.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom History Museum (no English sign) was originally a garden complex, built in the Ming dynasty, which housed some of the Taiping officials before their downfall. There are displays of maps showing the progress of the Taiping army from Guǎngdōng, Hong Xiuquan's seals, Taiping coins, weapons and texts that describe the Taiping laws on agrarian reform, social law and cultural policy. Daily opera performances (Y70) are held in the evening.
Bus Y2 goes to the museum from the Ming Palace Ruins or Taiping …
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Nánjīng Museum
Just east of Zhōngshān Gate, the Nánjīng Museum displays artefacts from Neolithic times right through to the communist period…when it's not under renovation. The main building was constructed in 1933 in the style of a Ming temple with yellow-glazed tiles, red-lacquered gates and columns. While this building is being tinkered with, a small collection has moved to the Art Gallery (艺术陈列馆; Yīshùchénlièguǎn) building next door.
The limited offerings include a haphazardly arranged collection of porcelain, textiles, bronze ware, earthen ware and folk art. Some of the 500-plus-year-old porcelain, with striking colours, looks startlingly contemporary, while a l…
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Ming Palace Ruins
Wǔcháomén Park, in which the Ming Palace Ruins are scattered, is a peaceful but maudlin place. Built by Hongwu, the imperial palace is said to have been a magnificent structure after which the Imperial Palace in Běijīng was modelled. Anyone familiar with the layout of the Forbidden City will see similarities in the arrangement.
You can clamber into the ruined Meridian Gate (Wǔ Mén). It's not as magnificent as its namesake portal in the Forbidden City, but it, too, once had huge walls jutting out at right angles from the main structure, along with watchtowers. Today, the park is filled with locals practicing ballroom dancing (not quite what the emperor had in mind) to …
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Fūzǐ Temple
The Confucian Fūzǐ Temple, in the south of the city in a pedestrian zone, was a centre of Confucian study for more than 1500 years. This temple has been damaged and rebuilt repeatedly; what you see here today are newly restored, late-Qing-dynasty structures or wholly new buildings reconstructed in traditional style.
Across from the temple complex to the east is the Imperial Examinations History Museum. This is a recent reconstruction of the building where scholars once spent months – or years – in tiny cells studying Confucian classics in preparation for civil service examinations.
Today the area surrounding Fūzǐ Temple has become Nánjīng's main amusement quarter and …
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Memorial Hall of the Nánjīng Massacre
Hands down the best 'sight', if it can be called such, in Nánjīng. The unsettling exhibits at the Memorial Hall of the Nánjīng Massacre document the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers against the civilian population during the occupation of Nánjīng in 1937. They include pictures of actual executions – many taken by Japanese army photographers – and a gruesome viewing hall built over a mass grave of massacre victims. Detailed captions are in English, Japanese and Chinese, but the photographs, skeletons and displays tell their own haunting stories without words. At times it feels a little overwhelming but visitors might begin to understand that the massacre is deeply…
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Garden of the Master of the Nets
Off Shiquan Jie, this pocket-sized garden, the smallest in Sūzhōu, is considered one of the best preserved in the city. It was laid out in the 12th century, went to seed and was later restored in the 18th century as part of the home of a retired official turned fisherman (thus the name). The central section is the main garden. The western section is an inner garden where a courtyard contains the Spring Rear Cottage (Diànchūn Yì), the master's study.
The most striking feature of this garden is its use of space: the labyrinth of courtyards, with windows framing other parts of the garden, is ingeniously designed to give the illusion of a much larger area. Trivia nuts: th…
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Yangzi River Bridge
Opened on 23 December 1968, the Yangzi River Bridge is one of the longest bridges in China – a double-decker with a 4500m-long road on top and a train line below. Wonderful socialist realist sculptures can be seen on the approaches. Odds are that you'll probably cross the bridge if you take a train from the north. Probably the easiest way to get up on the bridge is to go through the Bridge Park. Catch bus 67 from Jiangsu Lu, northwest of the Drum Tower (鼓楼; Gǔlóu), to its terminus opposite the park.
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Zijin Observatory
Zijin Observatory. Situated near the top of Zijin Mountain, this observatory houses a remarkable collection of bronze Ming and Qing astronomical instruments once used by Jesuit missionaries. The mountain dominates the eastern fringes of Nánjīng and is a heavily forested area of parks and the site of most of Nánjīng's historical attractions. It's also one of the coolest places to escape from the steamy summers. A half-hour ride on a cable car carries you to the top of the 448m hill for a panoramic, if somewhat hazy, view of Nánjīng, or you can walk up the stone path that runs beneath the cable cars.
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West Garden Temple
This attractive temple was once part of the Garden to Linger In, but was given to a Buddhist temple in the early 17th century. The West Garden Temple, with its mustard-yellow walls and gracefully curved eaves, was burnt to the ground during the Taiping Rebellion and rebuilt in the late 19th century.
Greeting you upon entering the magnificent Arhat Hall (罗汉堂; Luóhàn Táng) within the temple is a stunning four-faced and thousand-armed statue of Guanyin, leading to mesmerising and slightly unnerving rows of 500 glittering luóhàn (Buddhists, especially a monk who has achieved enlightenment and passes to nirvana at death) – each one unique and near life-size. Kids mig…
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Cold Mountain Temple
About 2km west of the Garden to Linger In, the Cold Mountain Temple was named after the 7th century poet-monk Han Shan. Han Shan has exerted a surprising amount of influence on 20th century literature, first showing up in the work of Beat writers Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac, and later in the poetry of Irish Nobel prize-winner Seamus Heaney.
Today, the temple holds little of interest except for a stele by poet Zhang Ji immortalising both the nearby Maple Bridge and the temple bell (since removed to Japan). However, the fine walls and the humpback bridge are worth seeing.
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Coiled Gate
By the southwest corner of the outer moat (but entered from Dong Dajie), and part of one of Sūzhōu’s few remaining stretches of city wall, Coiled Gate is thought to be China’s last remaining land-and-water-gate, and dates from 1355. Inside the same grounds, Ruiguang Pagoda (Ruìguāng Tǎ) dates from the 3rd century and can be climbed. Further north, Gold Gate (Jīn Mén), just inside the western stretch of the city moat, is a plain but charming, unrestored city gate.
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Presidential Palace
After the Taiping took over Nánjīng, they built the Mansion of the Heavenly King (Tiānwáng Fǔ) on the foundations of a former Ming-dynasty palace. This magnificent palace did not survive the fall of the Taiping, but there is a reconstruction and a classical Ming garden, now known as the Presidential Palace. Other buildings on the site were used briefly as presidential offices by Sun Yatsen's government in 1912 and by the Kuomintang from 1927 to 1949. Bus Y1 travels here.
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Jīmíng Temple
Close to the Ming walls and Xuánwǔ Lake (Xuánwǔ Hú) is the Buddhist Jīmíng Temple, which was first built in AD 527 during the Three Kingdoms period. It's been rebuilt many times since, but has retained the same name (which literally translates as 'rooster crowing') since 1387. This temple is the most active temple in Nánjīng and is packed with worshippers during the Lunar New Year. The seven-story tall Yàoshīfótǎ Pagoda (药师佛塔) offers views over Xuánwǔ Lake. Walk up to the rear of the temple and out onto the city wall. Tufts of grass poke out from between the stones and you can embark on a lengthy and fabulous jaunt east along the overgrown ramparts.…
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Lion's Grove Garden
Near the Humble Administrator's Garden is the Lion's Grove Garden, constructed in 1342 by the Buddhist monk Tianru to commemorate his master, who lived on Lion Cliff in Zhèjiāng's Tīanm' Mountain. The garden is most notable for its legion of curiously shaped rocks, meant to resemble lions, protectors of the Buddhist faith. If the Humble Administrator's Garden was crowded, get ready to be pushed along by the tide of tourists here.
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Heaven Dynasty Palace
Heaven Dynasty Palace, off Mochou Lu, was originally established in the Ming dynasty as a school for educating aristocratic children in court etiquette. Most of today's buildings, including the centrepiece of the palace, a Confucian temple, date from 1866 when the whole complex was rebuilt. Today the buildings are used for a range of endeavours, including an artisans' market. To reach the palace, take bus 4 from the Xinjiekou roundabout and get off two stops to the west.
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Tiger Hill
In the far northwest of town, Tiger Hill is popular with local tourists. The hill itself is artificial and is the final resting place of He Lu, founding father of Sūzhōu. He Lu died in the 6th century BC and myths have coalesced around him – he is said to have been buried with a collection of 3000 swords and to be guarded by a white tiger.
The most popular point (and a sort of beacon drawing the visitors) is the leaning Cloud Rock Pagoda (云岩塔; Yúnyán Tǎ) atop Tiger Hill. The octagonal seven-storey pagoda, also known as Hǔqīu Pagoda, was built in the 10th century entirely of brick, an innovation in Chinese architecture at the time. The pagoda began tilting over 400 year…
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Nánjīng Treaty History Museum
Nánjīng Treaty History Museum houses a small collection of photographs, maps and newspaper clippings (no English captions) related to the Nánjīng Treaties. It's all rather yawn-worthy and probably only of interest to those keen on Chinese history. The museum is in Jinghai Temple (Jìnghǎi Sì) near the west train station, off Rehe Lu. To get there catch bus 16 from Zhongshan Lu.
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Zhonghua Gate
Zhonghua Gate. Some of the original 13 Ming city gates remain, including the Zhonghua Gate in the south and the Centre Gate (Zhōngyāng Mén) in the north. The city gates were heavily fortified; Zhonghua Gate has four rows of gates, making it almost impregnable, and could house a garrison of 3000 soldiers in vaults in the front gate building. Today some of these vaults are used as souvenir shops.
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Temple of Mystery
The Taoist Temple of Mystery stands in what was once Sūzhōu's old bazaar, a rowdy entertainment district with travelling showmen, acrobats and actors. The temple's present surroundings of Guanqian Jie are just as boisterous, but the current showmen are more likely to sell you a fake designer watch than balance plates on their heads.
The temple was founded during the Jin dynasty in the 3rd century AD, and restored many times over its long history. The complex contains several elaborately decorated halls, including Sānqīng Diàn (Three Purities Hall), which is supported by 60 pillars and capped by a double roof with upturned eaves. The temple dates from 1181 and is the o…
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Monument to the Crossing of the Yangzi River
Monument to the Crossing of the Yangzi River . In the northwest of the city on Zhongshan Beilu, this monument, erected in April 1979, commemorates the crossing of the river on 23 April 1949 and the capture of Nánjīng from the Kuomintang by the communist army. The characters on the monument are in the calligraphy of Deng Xiaoping. To get there catch bus 31 from Taiping Lu.
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Blue Wave Pavilion
Overgrown and wild, the 1-hectare garden around the Blue Wave Pavilion is one of Sūzhōu's oldest. The buildings date from the 11th century, although they have been repeatedly rebuilt. The entrance sits across a bridge that straddles the small lake out the front. Originally the home of a prince, the property passed into the hands of the scholar Su Zimei, who named it after a poem by Qu Yuan (340–278 BC).
Lacking a northern wall, the garden creates the illusion of space by borrowing scenes from the outside. A double verandah out the front pavilion wends its way along a canal. From the outer path, you'll see green space inside and from the inner path you can see views of …
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Cloud Rock Pagoda
Built in the 10th century, the leaning Cloud Rock Pagoda stands atop Tiger Hill. The octagonal seven-storey pagoda, also known as Huqiu Pagoda, is built entirely of brick, an innovation in Chinese architecture at the time. The pagoda began tilting over 400 years ago, and today the highest point is displaced more than 2m from its original position.
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