History

The name 'Wu' often applied to refer to Suzhou, derived from the local tribes who named themselves 'Gou Wu' in the late Shang Dynasty about 11th century BC. Later, King Helu of Wu State in 514 BC built his capital here known as the 'Great City of Helu' and since then the city's site and scale have remained unchanged. 

Geo-location and Population

Suzhou lies in the Yangtze Delta, bordering on Shanghai in the east, Zhejiang Province in the south, Lake Taihu in the west and the Yangtze in the north. Its east longitude is between 119'55" and 121'20" and its north latitude is between 30'47" and 32'02" with an altitude of about 4 meters. The total area of Suzhou is 8488.42 square kilometers, 2.7% of it, i. e. 225 square kilometers is hilly area; 42.5% of it, i. e. 3609 square kilometers, is water area. The land under cultivation occupies 288160 hectare. Built-up Urban Area covers 1,650 square kilometers.

Suzhou is composed of Suzhou Downtown and 5 country-level cities. And Suzhou Downtown contains seven Districts: Wuzhong, Xiangcheng, Pingjiang, Canglang, Jinchang, Suzhou Industrial Park and Suzhou New Hitech District. The 5 country-level cities are Changsu, Kunshan, Taicang, Wujiang and Zhangjiagang.

Suzhou has a population of 5.8386 million, among which 2,124 million are urban population(Suzhou Statistics Yearbook 2003).

Climate

Situated at the temperate zone and with subtropical oceanic monsoon climate, Suzhou enjoys an annual average temperature of about 15.8 ℃ (the highest temperature of the year is about 35℃ and the lowest temperature is about -3℃ ), an annual rainfall of about 1076 mm , an annual average relative humidity of about 76 per cent, and an annual sunshine time of about 1,726 hours (based on data offered by China Statistics Year Book).

City Infrastructure

Around Suzhou , there are several airports, including Suzhou Guangfu Airport (with a distance of 10 kilometers to Suzhou Downtown), Wuxi Shuo Fang Airport (40 kilometers), Shanghai Hong Qiao International Airports (86 kilometers) and Shanghai Pudong Airport (120 kilometers).

Suzhou Railway Station lies by North Huan Road , at Suzhou Downtown. Almost all trains from or to Shanghai will go by Suzhou . As a result you can get to each main city in China by train from Suzhou . While Jin-Hu High Speed Railway Construction Scheme has been listed in National 10 th Five-year Plan and the railway will also go through Suzhou .

Currently, the length of all highways in Suzhou 's territories adds up to 2052 kilometers in whole, with a highway coverage ratio of 21.46 kilometers per square kilometers. National Highway 204, 312, 318, Hu-Ning Highway , Jin-Su-Hu Highway and Su-Jia-Hang Highway connect Suzhou directly with such cities as Yantai, Qingdao , Shanghai , Xinjiang , Tibet , Nanjing , Beijing , Jiaxin and Hangzhou , etc.

There are 1.014 million vehicles in Suzhou at the end of 2002, including 0.21 million buses. In the whole year, the passenger traffic volume added up to 210 million person times.

t the end of 2002, the number of Suzhou telephone users was 2.19 million, with an average of 112.23 sets per 100 persons. And the number of mobile phone users was 2.66 million. The number of Internet users expanded to over 1 million(Data in this paragraph are cited from Suzhou Statistics Yearbook 2003).

Economy

In 2002, Suzhou got a GDP of RMB 208.0 billion yuan, and GDP per Capita was RMB 35700 yuan according to Suzhou Statistics Yearbook 2003.

Main Attractions

UNESCO has listed many Suzhou Gardens as World Heritages, such as Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden , Master-of-nets Garden , Lion Grove Garden , etc. And such villages with long history as Zhouzhuang, Tongli and Luzhi are all must-see for visitors.

f all Suzhou Gardens , Humble Administrator's Garden is the top one. It was first laid out in 1509 AD. The garden's scenery is focused on a central pond with various buildings of pavilions, terraces, chambers and towers located by the water or on hillocks in a natural, unsophisticated, and appropriate composition.