Suzhou, a prefecture-level city on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake in the province of Jiangsu, is renowned for its beautiful natural scenery and Jiangnan Stone bridges, pagodas and well designed gardens, which gives a well known nickname to Suzhou, "Venice of the East" or "Venice of China".
As one of the oldest towns with well known culture of garden in the Yangtze basin, Suzhou's history can be traced back to 2500 years ago in the later Shang Dynasty. However, many gardens in Suzhou were devastated by Japanese invaders since the Japanese invasion in 1937. In the early 1950s, restoration was done on gardens such as Zhuo-Zheng Yuan (Humble Administrator's Garden) and Liu Yuan (Lingering Garden) to bring them back to life.
As located in the subtropical zone, Suzhou has a humid climate and pleasant in the four seasons, and with the beautiful scenery, delicious foods make you feel like living in fairyland of China. In the other way, Suzhou embroidery, fans, Chinese musical instruments, scroll mountings, lanterns, mahogany furniture, jade products and so on present locals intelligent with a long history. Besides,
Suzhou is the center of eastern cuisine of china and the birthplace of Su-style cuisine which is one of the three major cuisines. The well-known dishes include: squirrel mandarin fish, shark's fin soup, horn oil eel paste, watermelon chicken, taihu lake water shield soup, lotus collection stew and so on. As well, Suzhou snacks, Su-style candied fruit, whitebait of Taihu Lake, green tea of Biluochun reward the praise by countrymen.