Crowning the top of Tiger Hill (虎丘山, Hǔqiū Shān), a beauty spot in the northwest of town, is the delightfully lopsided Cloud Rock Pagoda (云岩塔, Yúnyán Tǎ), a 10th-century brick tower that began tilting 400 years ago. Today the highest point is displaced more than 2m from its original position. Paths wind uphill to the precarious pagoda, passing auspicious rocks, faded stelae, groves of bamboo and an ancient spring.
Tiger Hill has been revered for centuries as the final resting place of He Lu, king of the State of Wu, who made Suzhou his capital in the 6th century BCE. He Lu is said to be buried here together with 3000 swords – excavations in the 1950s were halted so as not to uproot the pagoda. He Lu was also a patron of Sun Tzu, the military advisor and author of The Art of War – you'll find a shrine dedicated to him in the northwest corner of the complex. In the same corner, Clouds Melted in Tea Fragrance is a working tea plantation where you can sip fresh green tea under the trees.
Tiger Hill is joined to downtown Suzhou by Shantang Jie (山塘街), a historic street and canal built in the Tang dynasty to whisk Suzhou's upper classes to Tiger Hill for leisurely sojourns. Motorized boats ply the route (20 minutes, 50¥ per person). It's a charming trip in either direction; water lapping at mossy bricks makes for a timeless scene, save for the high-speed trains flashing past on a bridge overhead.
The southern end of Shantang Jie connects with line 2 of the Suzhou subway system (Shantang Jie station).
