TIGER HILL is a famous tourist spot - Yuan Hongdao (1568-1610) wrote, "not a day goes by without flutes, drums and fancy boats clustering there. On any moonlight night, flowery morning, or snowy evening, visitors come and go like the threads of some tapestry..."

CONTRARY POINTS OF VIEW

GARDENS - Shen Fu (1763-1825) wrote the most famous garden is "Lion Grove....with splendid rocks and old trees, but to me it looks more like coal dust covered with moss and ant hills. There is nothing wonderful about it."

Lynn B. Connor - Adventures in History

Suzhou was built more than 2500 years ago. Scholars, painters and poets gathered there. Grains, fruit, flowers, fish, vinegar, gold, silver, silk, the finest lanterns, rare and far off things filled the markets. Tourists flocked to the city to see its beautiful gardens and ancient sites.

Li Liu-fang (1575-1610), saw it differently, "there have been only two occasions in my life when I visited Tiger Hill and saw its natural beauty." When he took a friend there, they "couldn't get close to it because of the crowd and
the filth." They left holding holding their noses.

Glimpses of Old Suzhou

Suzhou Map 1229