Suzhou Classic Gardens Day Trip

On the morning of your tour, your guide will be waiting for you in the lobby, holding a placard displaying the China Highlights logo and your name on it. Simply show your confirmation letter and you will be guided to our vehicle.

A comfortable car will transfer you and your guide to the largest garden in Suzhou, which is widely considered to be the finest garden in southern China. The journey will take about 1½ hours.

Good to Know:

• The hotel pick-up and drop-off area should be within the middle ring road of Shanghai. For further distance there might be an extra cost for the transfer. Your travel advisor will give you a notification about this.
• If you plan to leave Shanghai after your day tour, please check out from your hotel before departure. Normally it will take 10 to 20 minutes for hotel staff to complete the procedure. You may leave your luggage in our vehicle, and we can transfer your to the Shanghai Hongqiao Airport (not Pudong Airport) or any train stations straight after the tour (for free!) to make best use of your time. You will need 1 hour to be transferred from the city center to airport, and you will need to be at the airport 1½ hours before a domestic flight, or 2½ hours before an international flight. Tell us about your departure time when booking, and remind our guide, and we will make arrangements accordingly.

The Humble Administrator's Garden, built in 1509 during the Ming Dynasty, is located at 178 Dongbei Street in Suzhou City. It is the largest and most renowned classical landscape garden in Suzhou, covering an area of 5.2 hectares (13 acres).

As one of the four most famous gardens in China, it is a 5A tourist attraction and listed in the Key National Historical Conservation Units, and it currently stands as one of the most valuable cultural relics in the world.

The Suzhou Garden Museum consists of four exhibition halls: Original Gardens, History of Suzhou Gardens, Garden Interest, and Administration of Gardens, displaying the vicissitudes of life and elegant demeanor of Suzhou’s gardens over the past 2,000 years.

Instead of a long walking trip to the parking lot taken by other groups, our rickshaw will be waiting for you at the garden gate. You will ride it in comfort to the heart of Pingjiang Street following your trip to the garden.

You will stop at a restaurant in Pingjiang Street that has been carefully selected by China Highlights. Enjoy some freshly prepared local food on the second floor where you can view the best part of Suzhou.

Good to Know:

• We will take you to a nice local restaurant in Pingjiang Street, which the local people frequent. Other agents tend to take clients to standardized “tourist restaurants”.
• The menu has been carefully selected by our product manager based on the recommendations of customers from different corners of the world to ensure a unique gourmet experience. We would be very pleased to hear from you and make a special arrangement if you have any particular requests about food.

The street was built alongside the Pingjiang River 800 years ago. It is 1,606 meters (a mile) long and located in the northeast part of the ancient town of Suzhou, next to the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Suzhou Garden Museum. In the Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1271–1368) dynasties, Suzhou was also called Pingjiang, so the road was named after the area. Compared to Shantang Street, it is much quieter and more rustic.

Good to Know:

• The street boasts an artistic atmosphere, with many interesting shops and cafés along the way. Feel free at this point to wander along the street and discover some hidden gems on your own.

Next, we will drive you to the most elegant garden in Suzhou: the Master of the Nets Garden. It is the smallest yet finest landscape garden in Suzhou City.

This 0.6-hectare (1½-acre) garden replicates an elegant structure of a typical official's residence in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). The present garden was founded on the former site of a Song Dynasty official's mansion. Its owner, an early Qing Dynasty official, Song Zongyuan, gave the garden its present name based on an earlier one, the "Fisherman's Retreat". It consists of a residential quarter and the actual garden.

Inside the refined residential quarter, the halls are linked closely by a corridor. The garden, petite but with many features, consists of a pond and is decorated with plants, rocks, pavilions, and stone bridges.

Going back to your hotel in Shanghai will normally take about 1½ hours, depending on traffic. Or…

Onward travel: If a Shanghai train station is your destination, allow the same time. Going direct to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport normally takes about 1½ hours, while you should allow 2 hours for transferring to Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

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