Little Venice [Suzhou]

Tongli is a water township with a history of more than 1000 years. It is located on the eastern shore of Lake Taihu, just outside Suzhou city. Its populatio is over 30 thousand, covering an area of 63 square kilometers.

Tuisi Yuan was the first of the attractions that I visited while touring Tongli. It is a rather small garden built in 1886 by a dismissed official who used the garden as a place of meditation. The garden is divided into three sections that include a large pond courtyard that is surrounded by pavilions, zigzaging walkways, large trees and of course, rocks. One section was also a mansion for the family of the official. The interior of it includes a main hall and a tea hall. Because of the manner the trees and pavilions are situated around the pond, that garden seems larger than it is. Tuisi is in fact rather small and for this reason very crowded. Out of all the attractions in Tongli, this is the one most saturated with tourists. Still I liked it but you have to use your imagination if you can figure out how someone is suppose to meditate with all these people crowding you.

This is a town build about 1000 years ago with canals around the town. Bridges are very important as its the main crossing point around the town. There are 3 bridges in this town which is the main bridge in the town where every newly married couple from Tongli are suppose to cross it for good luck.

There are more than 40 old bridges in this old town. The most famous are Bridge of Peace, Bridge of Auspicious & Bridge of Celebration. Villagers must cross these three bridges during wedding & birth ceremony. Bridge of Peace brings good health, Bridge of Auspicious brings prosperity in business & Bridge of Celebration brings longetivity. Thus, many tourists will not miss crossing these three bridges to bring them good luck & health.

So named to suggest a garden of "retiring to introspect the faults", was contructed during the reign of Guang Xu of the Qing Dynasty (1885 - 1887) as a private landscaped garden of Ren Lansheng, a then official of rectifying armed force. Owing to its typical terrain, Tuisi Yuan (Tuisi Garden) is laid out horizontally instead of vertically. From west to east, the left section contains houses, the middle pavillions, and the right gardens. Small as Tuisi Garden is, it is typical of a landscaped garden for all the architecture of Chinese garden such as pavillions, platforms, towers, halls, bridges, houses, and corridors can be found there since all the contructions are built on or near water. The garden is also reknowned as Tieshuiyuan (Garden Close To Water). In 1982 Tuisi Garden became the historical site under the provincial protection of Jiangsu, and in 2000 was listed as the World Cultural Heritage.

Luoxing Island located about 500m from the bank of Tongli. This island is famous for its misk and foy and known that Luoxing listening rain is one of the 24 sights in historu of Tongli. On the island stand a pagoda and a lake.

If you like to experience the traditional chinese wedding, you can try sitting in a sedan chair lifted by two people. They will carry you across the three auspicious bridges & loud music of trumpets & cymbals will accompany you along the way. I'm sure you will steal a lot of the limelight.

At one corner of the water canal, you can see some parked gondolas. There you can see birds tied to the boat. They are kingfishers. For a small fee, you can see these birds in action, swooping down to the water preying for fish

Although Tongli is the largest water village in Jiangsu Province, you can basically cover all the main attractions by walking. However, I trust you will have a different experience exploring this water village by boat. Gondolas rowing across households built along the water canals. It resembles the view in Venice, Italy. No doubt it was described as "Venice of the Orient" by Italian voyager, Marco Polo. You may rent a boat which costs about RMB60 per trip. It has a capacity of 12 people per boat. The boat tour will bring you sightseeing of three popular bridges, which are Bridge of Peace, Bridge of Auspicious & Bridge of Celebration (loosely translated). The whole journey takes about 30 minutes. While in the gondola ride, you can observe the daily lives of chinese people living near to the canal, using it as their daily supply of water. They still lead a rustic lifestyle by earning extra income from selling souvenirs / momentos. Sometimes, we are like intruding to their world, disrupting their daily routines.

Upon entering the ancient city of Tongli, you will purchase a ticket which will entitle you to visit at least 4 of the classical residential gardens that are situated within the old city. Among these are Gengle Hall, Chongben Hall, Jiayin Hall and Zhenzhu Ta. These marvelous places were once the homes to the local aristocracy, but today they have all been converted into exhibition spaces. Pictured here, some views of these lovely residential complexes. Notice especially in this series of 5 photos, the intricate designs in the cobblestones, very typical of this ancient design school.

Suzhou has grown too large and modernized, so the best way to recapture the charm of an ancient Chinese canal city is by visiting Tongli or one of the other small canal villages on the outskirts of Suzhou. Here, you can catch a fading glimpse of what it must have been like back in the days when Marco Polo proclaimed Suzhou and Hangzhou as the most sophisticated and advanced cities on the planet. That means an awful lot coming from a guy who lived in Venice at the dawn of the Renaissance. You can visit the canals either by taking a boat tour or simply by walking the network of stone bridges and walkways alongside them.

Pictured here, a typical street corner in part of the shopping district of Tongli. This is not the very oldest part of Tongli but it is part of the official village proper, and much of the architecture in this area makes use of this magnificent traditional style, complete with handsomely carved wood and red Chinese lanterns. You don't need any special form of transport to get around as everything is within walking distance inside the old city. Usually, you will see only pedestrians in the streets, as well as the occasional bicycle or motorcycle, but only very rarely automobiles.

The famous Pearl Pagoda of Tongli is one of the most stunning existing examples of classical Chinese architecture and design aesthetics. The Pearl Pagoda was also the place where a legendary Chinese love story took place. This sight is not included in the four main sights that usually come with an entrance ticket to Tongli as it is a bit farther afield from the center and thusly receives less visitors. It's an immense complex of residential houses once owned by the Chen family which also includes gardens, a large koi fish pond and a magnificent stage. There were no other visitors at all on the day I went so I had the whole place to myself! Admission fee was 20 RMB.

Tongli isn't very big and so can be seen in a day. Well, it took my mum and I about five or six hours to look around it, but others have told me they've done it in a morning! The entrance to the water town is just set back from the main road and there is a huge sign on a wall, so you can't miss it! If you do happen to miss it(!), just follow all the people..they will lead you into it no problem! You can walk a certain distance before having to pay looking in shop windows or stopping at restaurants, but the main idea is to go there for the rivers and lakes, so pay your 50yuan entrance, and you'll get to see all the sights!