Wuxi

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Wuxi is situated in the middle of the Yangtze Delta, Taihu Plain southeast of Jiangsu province; the Yangtze River to the north and Taihu Lake south; 183 kilometers away from Nanjing, 128 kilometers from Shanghai. Its neighbors include Changzhou in the west and Suzhou in the east. This part of the world features a sweep of flat land, except for emerald hills in the southwestern part. Some 100 low green mountains and hills, along with some 1,000 winding rivers and numerous reflecting lakes form a beautiful painting scroll. Covering an area of 4,650 square kilometers, the city has a population of 4.359 million.

What to see

Li Garden

In the Qingqi Village in Wuxi City, is located the Li Garden which is one of the major scenic spots in China. It lies by Li Lake and covers an area of 8.2 hectares (approx. 98,071 square yards). It is said that Fan Li who was a prime minister of the Yue State in Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 BC) was very meritorious in helping the king to conquer another state. However, he has decided to live in privacy with Xi Shi (one of the Four Beauties in ancient China) after the big success was achieved. They lived in this area and boated in Li Lake. In order to commemorate Fan Li, the lake was named after his name. However, the garden was named after the lake.

The garden is surrounded by water on three sides. You can see green hills in the distance, and at close range the dike, long corridor, and rockery. The scenery in the garden can be divided into three sections: Man-made hills in the middle section, the scenic spots such as long dike and Four Seasons Pavilions in the west section and abundant spots including Spring and Autumn Pavilion and long corridor in the east section.

In the middle section, man-made hills were piled high in various shapes and styles. Some are sharp and angular, of which some are purely magnificent. There is a stone path which is wide in some sections but narrows in others, also are bright in some sections but obscure in others. Walking along the path can be just like being in a maze. The man-made hills are endowed with more vitality by the lake. The two seem to form a whole unit and bring us a great enjoyment of nature's beauty.

Four Seasons Pavilions are in fact four pavilions - Spring Pavilion, Summer Pavilion, Autumn Pavilion and Winter Pavilion. They were built all in the same style. The pictures of flowers in four seasons are painted on their pillars. Beside each pavilion, a special kind of flower was planted. Plum blossoms are planted beside the Spring Pavilion, and Oleanders are planted beside the Summer Pavilion. Sweet-scented osmanthus can be found by the Autumn Pavilion and Calyx canthus by the Winter Pavilion. Therefore, tourists can enjoy beautiful flowers here in any season.

Spring and Autumn Pavilions are three stories high, with the eaves cocked upwards. The pavilion gained its name for it is relation to Fan Li and Xi Shi who lived in the Spring and Autumn Periods. The name causes people to imagine something about the ancient time and the sweet love story between them. The pavilion is the highest architecture in the garden, thus providing people a good place to overlook the panoramic view around the garden.

Plum Garden

Located five kilometers (3 miles) west of the city of Wuxi, the Plum Garden in Jiangsu Province has long been known as one of the best places for viewing plum blossoms. The garden backs onto Dragon Mountain in the north and faces Taihu Lake in the south. The three elements-mountains, water, and plum blossoms-are combined to create picturesque scenery that fully represents the profound culture of Chinese plum blossom.

As early as 1912, Rong Desheng, one of the first national businessmen, invested in the garden and began its construction. He planted various plum trees on the original plot of 80 mu (13 acres), later expanding it. The garden now occupies an area of more than 500 mu (82 acres). It integrates natural beauty, history and architecture in a harmonious way.

Three sections featuring distinct themes are distributed in the garden. The part that focuses on the plum blossom has a romantic and poetic atmosphere. As you wander around through this 'ocean of fragrance', bear in mind famous poems and paintings composed on the subject and you will appreciate the wonders of plum blossoms more than ever. There are more than 4,000 planted plum trees and 2,000 plum bonsais including about 40 hybrids such as Cinnabar plum and Kermes plum. Enjoying a 70-year-history of planting, the garden offers a great many examples of members of the plum family including Straight Branch, Reclinate Branch, Dragon Swim, hybrids of plum and apricot, and cherry plum, many of which have been brought here from all around China.

You are bound to be impressed by the shapes of the trees and the poses of the plum blossoms. However, the garden is far more than just scenery. Dotted with terraces, pagodas and rare stones, the garden provides you with many favorable spots for appreciating the view. Furthermore, there is a museum where you can learn more about the natural history of plum blossom.

Roaming about the garden, you may feel as if you were in a mysterious land where windmills and hanging bridges are interspersed with coffee bars. The grassland, forests and flowers here have many distinct foreign styles and are sure to impress you.

Another spot worth mentioning is the Huaxi District (flowers and streams). There are more than 100 varieties of rare flowers and grasses growing under the trees, either along the river banks or amongst the huge rocks.

The garden now has many other trees planted among the plum trees such as peach, orange, and maidenhair as well as many other plants such as lotus. You should not miss the poetic and romantic view of the Three Friends of winter-pine trees, bamboo and plum trees-together with the floating snow, which highlight the garden every winter.

Taihu Lake

Located in the southern part of the Yangtze River delta, Taihu Lake is the third largest freshwater lake in China. With a surface area of about 2,338 square kilometers (about 902 square miles), Taihu Lake is a famous scenic spot in China and is famed for its lake, its hills and its splendid man-made scenery.

Taihu Lake is just like a bright pearl set in the Yangtze River delta. It crosses Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, where 48 islets of different sizes and 72 peaks and peninsulas along the lake combine to form a panorama of great natural beauty. The best place to view the beautiful Taihu Lake is on the Turtle Head Islet. Turtle Head Islet is an islet stretching into the lake, whose shape is really like the head of a turtle protruding from the water. Taihu Lake and the surrounding magnificence will bewitch your eyes when you climb onto Turtle Head. When the soft breezes blow, waves roll and the hills in the distance look like an overlapping landscape painting. The scene is really captivating. Turtle Head Islet Park is mainly made of the natural landscape, augmented by man-made additions. Flowers and trees can be seen everywhere. Various kinds of architecture are strategically placed among the trees and shrubs. All conspire to make the park graceful and elegant.

Besides the natural scenery of Taihu Lake, there are many ruins of historic sites, such as the Grand Canal of the Sui Dynasty (581-618), the Islets in the lake along with the coastal places in the east, the north and the west both of which are the cradle land of the culture of Wuyue (this culture touches on traditions that flow from or refer to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and the southeast part of Anhui Province today) and so on.

Taihu Lake is an abundant source of fish. Traveling there, you can taste the famous delicious food known as 'Taihu Lake Three Whites', including white shrimp, whitebait and whitefish. The feast is generally prepared in the boat as one floats on the placid waters of Taihu Lake. It is very well worth a visit.

Three Kingdoms City

Located in the southwest suburb of Wuxi City is the Three Kingdoms City, which is one of the CCTV Television Bases, and a renowned tourist attraction. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a historical TV series, was filmed there. The title, Three Kingdoms, refer to Wei (220-265), Shu (221-263) and Wu (229-280) which were the three rival powers during the period of Three Kingdoms.

Covering an area of about 35 hectares (86 acres), the Three Kingdoms City is a Han Dynasty (206BC-220) style structure. In order to film the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a series of buildings were needed to be built there. These include the King of Wu's Palace, the Ganlu Temple, the Caocao's Army Camp on Land and Waterside, the Seven Star Altar and the Stunt Performing Court for Big Fire at Red Cliffs. These buildings have all become celebrated tourist spots.

On each side of the gate to the King of Wu's Palace stand two Quelou Towers, each 21 meters (69 feet) high and in the Han Dynasty symbolized official status. The towers are the highest structure in the city. In the palace, the furnishings are in black, which symbolize richness, honor and happiness in the Han Dynasty. There also, Liu Bei, the King of Shu married Sun Shangxiang who was the sister of Sun Quan, the King of Wu.

The Ganlu Temple is located south of the King of Wu's Palace. The temple comprises the Buddhist Hall, the Drum Tower, the Brick Pagoda and the Sword Testing Stone. In the Buddhist Hall is enshrined Sakyamuni. To the right is the Chanting Hall and on the left is the Meeting Room. There Dowager Wu (Sun Shangxiang's mother) met her daughter's future husband - Liu Bei. Also there Sun Quan and Liu Bei chopped the stone and made their wishes to defeat Caocao's Army.

The Caocao's Army Camp on Land and Waterside consists of the Mustering Platform, the Outer Gate of the Army Camp, Four Watchtowers and some warships. It is about 300 meters (984 feet) long from east to west and 100 meters (328 feet) from north to south. The scenes of Caocao Composing a Poem when Wielding Spear and the Burning of the Red Cliffs in the TV series the Romance of the Three Kingdoms were shot there. When standing on the Mustering Platform, tourists have a panoramic view of the entire camp.

The Seven Star Altar is where Zhuge Liang prayed for procuring the southeast wind. The altar is built like a pyramid. At the center of the altar is engraved the fish patterns which symbolize Yin and Yang (the two opposing principles in nature) and around these are painted the Eight Diagrams.

At the Stunt Performing Court for Big Fire at Red Cliffs, tourists can appreciate magnificent scenes of burning the Red Cliffs. All of the warships, soldiers and barracks are minature models. Through remote control and electropneumatic control, the vivid warring scenes are presented to the visitors. Here tourists are able to get a clear understanding of the special cinematic technology.

Other tourist spots within the city include the Peach Garden - where Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei swore to be blood brothers, the Arena, the Eight Diagrams Formation and the Horse Race Course. At the Arena, performances of Han Dynasty bullfighting and equestrianism are held. Covering an area of 2,600 square meters (0.6 acre), the Eight Diagrams Formation is formed by 13,000 wooden pegs which are five centimeters (0.1 feet) in diameter. When exploring this formation, tourists will feel like they are entering a maze. In the Horse Race Course, Three Heroes (Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei) Dueling Lv Bu is performed at ten everyday. Visitors are also able to wear the uniforms and enjoy themselves by participating in the performance.

Climate

Wuxi lies in the North Asian tropical humid temperate zone, with annual temperature averaging 16C (60F). It is blessed with plentiful of sunshine and precipitation and a long frost-free period. With four distinct seasons, the city is typical of the area sough of the Yangtze River, featuring lushness, pleasant weather and an enchanting environment.

Dining

Wuxi Cuisine is among the top 14 cuisine styles in China. Its flavor is light and sweet, focusing on seasonal ingredients. Seafood such as shrimp, crab, eel, fish and other lake products is an important ingredient and is generally cooked simply to enhance the natural taste and to retain the original flavor. Besides seafood, all kinds of vegetables are fresh and frequently used. Now the three aspects of Wuxi Cuisine - Wuxi dishes, boat dishes and Capital dishes are flourishing. Among its famous dishes are Wuxi Spareribs, Liangxi Crisp Eel, stewed bean curd with shrimp and ginger sauce, walnut chicken balls, fried glutinous rice with shrimps, braised pork in fermented bean-curd sauce and five-spiced chicken leg. Wuxi small steamed bun, Almond Dumpling and Wonton are well-known refreshments.

• Wuxi Sweet and Salty Spare Ribs: Wuxi Spare Ribs is the most popular local dish and is the specialty to look out for people come to Wuxi. It features the common eastern technique of "Red cooking" in a stock of rice wine and soy sauce and spiced with ginger, anise, cloves and black peppercorns and has unique red-sweet sauce on the top in order to give rich taste.

• Bean Curd in Casserole: This is a home-style dish but cooked with special cooking utensil-Casserole. Put bean curd and other vegetables into the Casserole together with chicken soup and sesame oil, then bring to the boil, simmer. When it's done, the bean curd is white and soft, the dish taste fresh and has rich nutrition.

Get around in Wuxi

As the transport hub for the area, Wuxi has easy access to railway, highway, air and water transport facilities. It is bisected by the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway, Nanjing-Shanghai Expressway, Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, National Highways No.312 and 104, and Jiangsu provincial roads.Sea travel is also convenient via Jiangyin and Zhangjiagang harbors, both close to the city.

Air

Wuxi has a small airport with flights to Beijing (1.5hours), Foshan (2.5hours) and Kunming (2hours). Tourists to other destinations should go via nearby Changzhou, Nanjing or Shanghai airports.

Train

There are about 60 fast trains that stop by Wuxi daily, heading for nearby cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and distant cities like Beijing, Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, Jinan, Zhengzhou, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Xining, Chengdu and Urumqi. Almost every major city in China is directly connected with Wuxi. The train station is north of the canal ring. You can take bus no.11 to get there. If you have to line up for a ticket, try window No.2, where the service tends to be a little quicker than elsewhere.

Boat

The Xishan ferry dock is to the southwest part of the city. There are daily tourist boats to Changzhou (3 hours) and Suzhou (3.5 hours). It is also pleasant to go to Huzhou across Taihu Lake.

Entertainment

Shopping

Wuxi is a modern industrial city where almost anything is possible in terms of purchasing. On the rare occasion that you can't find what you are looking for, Shanghai is only an hour and a half away to visit or to send off for whatever it is you may need.

Wuxi has modern department stores, large supermarkets, and tourist markets such as the Nanchang temple area. Besides these options there are myriad classic Chinese shops and stalls where you can bargain your heart out and shop til you drop. Like any big city in China, these shops can be found any and everywhere, so keep searching.

There are several large shopping centres dotting the city, where you can buy everything under one roof.

Nightlife

For the ex-pat in Wuxi, the entertainment options at night boil down to the following: three ex-pat pubs, the many Chinese pubs, Chinese discos, a few late-night restaurants, the infinite number of KTVs (karokee), or staying at hotel.

• The ex-pat pub is probably the best option. In Wuxi, you can go to the Blue Bar, the Australian Bar, and the Londoner. There will always be someone there you can talk to in these places and so you never have to feel alone here. The problem with this option is that you can do too much of it. You see the same people too often and you have nothing to talk about. Some nights you go in and malaise quickly overcomes you.
  

• You can go to a small Chinese pub, be overcharged, and made to feel you have entered a brothel.
  

• A Chinese disco like Babyface, Club 7, Virus, or X-97 is a nice change every once a while and I do mean every once in a while. The music is not really to ex-pat tastes. The same beat is played over and over again. The song never seems to change. The places are sometimes far too crowded to dance properly. The Chinese dance by standing in place and shaking their heads about. Getting a drink in these places is not at all up to western-efficiency. You can wait a long time to get a warm beer in an unopened bottle. I now have a bottle-opener on my key-chain so I don't have to look for the bottle-opener guy. But it is not all so bad, the discos are great places to see the best that Chinese womanhood has to offer.

• KTVs are not really an option, unless you want to see "King of the Road" over and over and over again.

• There are not that many restaurants to go to past nine pm in Wuxi. There are some late-night Hot-Pot restaurants to go to. Romanos pizza is open to twelve midnight, as is the Xinjiang Mohammed Restaurant. The food at these two restaurants is excellent. But unfortunately you can get too much of a good thing.

• With DVDs so cheap here, many an ex-pat can watch a movie to past the time. Talking about DVDs is actually the most popular subject for conversation at ex-pat pubs. We would recommend watching three of the latest movies on DVD every week so you are not left out of any conversations on the nights you can't stay in your apartment and need to get out.

Natural Scene

• Lake Taihu

Historical Site

• Great Buddha at Lingshan

Cultural Site

• Yuantouzhu
• Liyuan Garden

Wuxi Highlights

South China Water Town attraction highlights

Chinese ancient water towns are well known for their ancient houses, bridges and the rivers running through them. In these water towns, there remains architecture that dates back more than 1,000 years. More important, there exists a culture and a lifestyle that is glaringly absent in modern busy Chinese cities today.

• Ancient Town of Zhouzhuang
• Ancient Town of Wuzhen
• Old Town of Xitang
• Tongli Town

city highlights

• Suzhou
• Wuxi
• Jiaxing

Wuxi FAQ & Travelers's Tips