苏州市

Why this place

Suzhou is the city that defined the Chinese classical garden: private scholars' gardens built as miniature worlds of water, rock and pavilion. Nine of them are UNESCO-listed. It is also a canal city whose old streets still step down into the water, and the centre of China's silk industry for a thousand years.

What to see

• The Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lingering Garden — the two essential gardens
• The Master of the Nets Garden, the smallest and the most perfectly composed
• Pingjiang Road and Shantang Street, canal lanes with stone bridges
• Tiger Hill and the leaning Yunyan Pagoda, which leans more than Pisa
• The Suzhou Museum, designed by I. M. Pei, next to the Humble Administrator's Garden
• Tongli and Zhouzhuang, canal towns within an hour, if you want the water-town version

What to eat

• Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish (songshu guiyu) — sweet and sour, and deftly cut
• Suzhou-style noodles with a clear broth and toppings chosen from a list
• Sweet osmanthus cakes and glutinous-rice sweets

How to plan

Two days: gardens and the museum one day, the canals and Tiger Hill the next.

Best time

March–May and September–November; gardens are best in light rain, which is why they were built

Practical tips

• Gardens open early and are empty at 8am — by 10am the main ones are shoulder to shoulder
• Suzhou is 25 minutes from Shanghai by high-speed rail