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The historic town lies within a rectangular moat formed by canals. The city's clear grid of streets and waterways makes Suzhou a relatively easy place in which to get your bearings.
Renmin Lu
, the main street, bulldozes south through the centre from the
train station
, which is just to the north of the moat. Across the street from the station, along the canal, there's a
tourist office
(daily 8.30am-5pm) offering brochures and enthusiastic information on day trips and transportation links in the area - although the staff's English is limited. Next door to the office, across from the train station's soft-seat waiting room, is a small jetty where you can sign up for
boat tours
along the Grand Canal, either south to Pan Men or northwest to Hu Qiu (?30 per person for groups; entire boat for about ?150 for lone travellers). Either trip takes about two hours return. For now, there are no trips which combine visits to both Pan Men and Hu Qiu, though the tour operators are thinking about starting a service in the near future. Most facilities for the traveller are located on or near Renmin Lu, including the
post office
, the
Bank of China
and the
PSB
. The traditional commercial centre of the city lies around
Guanqian Jie
, halfway down Renmin Lu, an area of cramped, animated streets thronged with small shops, tea houses and restaurants. A newer, smarter shopping area has also developed outside the northwestern part of the moat around
Shi Lu
, while the area of town due west of the moat is the modern, ugly
Xincheng
.
Nearly all travellers arrive by train , Suzhou being on the main Shanghai-Nanjing rail line and served by frequent trains to and from both cities. Perhaps because Suzhou is a major tourist destination, hotel touts here are much more aggressive than elsewhere in China - the best strategy to shake them off is to ignore them completely. Buses #1 and #20 take you into town from just east of the train station. Some private minibuses also use the train station square as their terminus, for example services to and from Wuxi and points on Tai Hu. Suzhou has two main bus stations: the Beimen bus station , which has hourly connections with Shanghai and Wuxi as well as a thrice-daily service to Zhouzhuang, is directly to the east of the train station. The Nanmen bus station , with buses to points south including Hangzhou and Wenzhou, is at the southern end of Renmin Lu (take bus #1 to get into the centre). Very near the Nanmen bus station is the passenger dock for canal boats to and from Hangzhou. A third bus station travellers might use is the Wuxian bus station in the far south of the town, one large block south of the moat (city bus #1 also passes here). This is the base for buses to and from local towns such as Tongli and Zhouzhuang. There is no airport at Suzhou (the nearest is at Shanghai, accessible in about an hour by taxi), though there is a CAAC office for bookings Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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China,
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