A Unique Suzhou Guide for You: Rustic B&B + Artsy Little Photo Spots

May Day is coming, and maybe you're still hesitating about where to go, too busy with work to plan an itinerary. Then a ready-made pie just dropped from the sky.

This article can serve as your map to follow, covering food, fun, shopping—everything, while taking the road less traveled and bypassing the big attractions.

Itinerary at the end of the article.

Admission: Free

Address: East Taihu Avenue, Wujiang District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

I remember my high school graduation trip was to Taihu Lake. N years have passed, and Taihu has changed a lot. The eastern side now has the East Taihu Ecological Tourism Resort. It took 50 months of returning fish farms and reclaimed farmland to the lake to become today's clean, quiet, large ecological leisure park integrating city and lake, where water and greenery depend on each other.

Wangong Causeway is named after the late-Qing water conservancy expert Wan Qingxuan, who served as magistrate in Wujiang three times. During his tenure, he spent his entire salary to build the embankment from Sanli Bridge in Songling to Dapu Bridge in Bache.

Now Wangong Causeway has become a green lung of the city. It's sparsely populated on weekdays, and on weekends, people gather here to enjoy nature and leisure time. There are very few buildings inside, no tall ones at all, so it looks peaceful and lush. The eco park is vast, featuring a waterfront plaza area, a central park area, and an eco-experience area. Along the roadside, there are family bikes for rent. In spring, you can tread on the green grass and enjoy the sea of flowers; in summer, splash in the water and watch birds; in autumn, admire the red maples; and in winter, view the snow. The scenery differs with every season. Some schools even bring groups of kids here for spring outings and picnics.

Business hours: 10:00–21:00

Address: East side of the swimming area in Suzhou Bay East Taihu Ecological Park, Hujing Street, Taihu New City, Wujiang District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

There was a time when bookstores were no longer just places that sold books. From the Guanghe Zuoyong in my high school days, which also sold cultural and creative products, to later Kubrick, One Way Street, Librairie Avant-Garde... Though brick-and-mortar bookstores have been on a continuous decline, in recent years the revival of special types of physical bookstores has brought people new understanding and atmosphere. The functions bookstores bear have become diverse.

We were playing in East Taihu Ecological Park and searched online to find this bookstore. The surrounding buildings were sparse—a solitary ship-like metal structure, full of design. Green trees set it off, creating a strong contrast with the rust color. Inside the bookstore, on the right, there's first a tea room. They say Zen and tea are one; books and tea also have deep origins and matching temperaments. A cup of white tea paired with a beloved book—time slips by without you realizing an entire afternoon has passed. Reading has always been about crossing mountains; drinking tea has always traversed rivers.

Further inside is a spacious area filled with all kinds of books, as well as quaint knick-knacks and decorations that are also for sale, along with many cultural and creative items. The second floor has private rooms. The bookstore also frequently holds calligraphy and reading events. The owner is said to have started with a small bookstore in an ancient seaside town in their hometown, later opening the Nantong Zhongguan Academy, hailed as Jiangsu's most beautiful bookstore. Over more than 20 years, that little shop grew into a bookstore brand.

Average spend: 90 yuan

Address: Building C, Meizhuang, Suzhou Bay East Taihu Ecological Park, Hujing Street, Taihu New City

East Taihu Ecological Park has very few people. The eco park's north side and the Suzhou Bay Sports Park in the south each have a café with the same vibe—both in white buildings with almost entirely white interiors, perfect for photos. That's why many girls come here. The café is roughly divided into three spaces. The outermost area has scattered seats; the sunlight is great here, and when it's strong, shadows are cast on the floor. Any drink paired with a quiet sitting pose makes a great shot.

The inner area has fewer people, but there aren't many photo-worthy spots—only a green window that looks nice. The spiral staircase leading to the second floor is the highlight and produces excellent photos. The café also thoughtfully prepared colorful lights for photo-taking, in a rainbow of colors.

Tips: Don't dress too flashy; solid colors and an elegant, simple look are best. A prime lens with a classic focal length is ideal. Shooting the staircase from the second floor or at level from the first floor works well. Also good are the wrought-iron chairs by the window. The café also functions as a bistro, offering a variety of desserts, photogenic drinks, and simple Western meals. The éclairs and pasta are recommended.

Address: East Taihu Ecological Tourism Resort, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

First time visiting East Taihu, first time staying at HUALUXE. This is an IHG brand and the world's first international luxury hotel brand tailor-made for Chinese people. Several have opened in China's first-, second-, and third-tier cities and resort destinations, and the plan is to expand internationally later.

From the stay experience, this is a very standard international hotel—service, facilities, layout, dining are all up to par, yet it's still a resort type within the high-end business hotel category. Suzhou Bay HUALUXE Hot Spring Resort is in Taihu New City, Wujiang District, right by Suzhou Bay and Taihu Lake. It's very close to East Taihu Ecological Park, Suzhou Bay Cultural Center, Suzhou Bay Dream Water World, and Suzhou Bay Sports Park, and convenient for trips to Tongli Ancient Town and Zhenze Ancient Town. In the luxury hot spring room, you can soak in the hot spring right on the balcony, and the view outside is quite nice. The rooms are spacious, and the tea bags are notably different—they provide the hotel's own brand of high-mountain green tea, Anxi Tieguanyin, Palace Pu'er, and English black tea, rather than generic market brands.

❤ Wangyan Hot Spring

Business hours: Monday–Friday: 13:00–22:00; Weekends and public holidays: 10:00–22:00

Address: East Taihu Ecological Tourism Resort, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

Staying at Suzhou Bay HUALUXE Hotel, we played at Wangyan Hot Spring just a stone's throw away—a three-minute walk. While soaking in the hot spring, you can enjoy the scenery. The hot spring is outdoors, hidden within gardens, with over forty differently themed pools. One of the "Eight Scenes of Songling," Longqiu Sweet Spring, is the origin point, with more than ten health-preserving pools of various benefits. There are also dry and wet saunas, geothermal steam, an outdoor heated swimming pool, and a children's splash pool. If you forgot your swimsuit, no worries—the lobby sells many styles on-site. The hot spring feels very comfortable; the water is warm at 40 degrees, but you shouldn't stay in too long. The water is rich in strontium, radon, and other minerals, good for relaxing muscles and tendons and health. It's amazing—even without applying skincare, my skin was especially smooth and tender. The Rose Spring can regulate qi, invigorate blood, and beautify the complexion. The Longqiu Pool has little yellow duck decorations. You can even play water mahjong and water chess here, and there are free cotton candy making and cartoons for kids. There's a ball pit pool that children love.

[Must-try] The floating afternoon tea in the hot spring pool looks stunning in photos and is delicious, too. It comes with a fruit platter, drinks, hot spring eggs, green plums... The hot spring eggs have a soft, runny center and are great dipped in soy sauce.

Vibrant All-Day Dining Restaurant: Extended business hours, open until late-night snacks. You can try local snacks.

CAI FENG LOU Chinese Restaurant: Specializes in Huaiyang cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, and seafood. Many dishes were new to me, with well-executed flavors and presentation.

Lobby Lounge & JUMINGYI: A space for tea drinking and relaxing.

Address: South side of East Taihu Ecological Park, Wujiang District, Suzhou

A new way to enjoy Taihu: rent a yacht for a cruise on the lake. We rented a yacht at the Shang Sai Sailing Club. This sailing base is located within the provincial eco-tourism resort—Wujiang East Taihu Ecological Park. The environment is beautiful, the water resources are top-quality, and it has the best conditions for sailing in the Yangtze River Delta. You can rent a yacht and view the Suzhou Bay Grand Theater from the water, and also try windsurfing, sailing, speedboats...

Sailing is a sport purely driven by wind. It requires full concentration, constantly observing changes in wind, waves, and sails.

The instructor was a young woman, very skilled.

We also experienced unpowered sailboats; some paddled. The large yacht had cabins and a kitchen downstairs, making it suitable for team building.

Business hours: 9:30–21:00

Address: 100 meters south of the football field, Suzhou Bay Sports Park, Wujiang District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

The café has an outdoor area with white seats and a white fence.

Indoors, there are two small private rooms with dim lighting, and a large private room for groups with good lighting and an orange color scheme; the dining table was adorned with beautiful flowers.

The second floor also has a dining area, but it's not as nice as the first floor.

The scattered seats by the window on the first floor offer the best view and are especially good for photos.

We were a big group, so each ordered a main dish plus some drinks.

When the food arrived and we tasted it, we were utterly amazed.

The Western dishes looked beautiful—the colors, ingredients, plating, and tableware were all on point.

Highly recommended are the wreath coffee, Scotch eggs, and soybean mochi coffee—their appearances are stunning.

For food, the pesto pasta, pizza, roast chicken, spaghetti bolognese, avocado salad, and seafood paella are recommended...

Address: 12000 East Taihu Avenue, Wujiang District, Suzhou

On the eastern shore of Taihu, the Suzhou Bay Grand Theater beside East Taihu in Wujiang has finally made its debut at Suzhou Bay after years of construction. Designed by international architect Christian de Portzamparc, it is the largest theater complex in Suzhou and the third largest in the country, adding another magnificent landscape to Wujiang New City.

The grand theater consists of a main building and a lake-viewing platform. It's beautiful from every angle. In the April drizzle, the lake was misty. At dusk, the faint pink glow of the setting sun, the gloomy blue sky, and the high-voltage line towers in the distance composed a picture.

Two metal ribbons are the iconic symbol, a mark of the new century, as if you've entered the future. Like water sleeves, they also carry the charm of a water town. At its core, the Suzhou Bay Grand Theater has a 1,600-seat opera hall, a 600-seat drama hall, and over a dozen rehearsal halls. It's also the first in Asia and the world's largest immersive tech performance theater—the "8K Future Theater."

Address: 588 Yingbin Avenue, Taihu New City, East Taihu Scenic Area, Wujiang District, Suzhou

Many locals don't even know that East Taihu has hot springs. From my own soaking experience, the water quality is excellent, with different types for health and fitness or nourishing selenium-rich springs—very comfortable.

We stayed at Suzhou East Taihu Hotel. The "Zhen" SPA Boutique Hot Springs have many open-air pools hidden in the woods.

The rooms have balconies overlooking lush greenery. On one side, there's also a children's playground, making it a great spot for family trips. The hotel is divided into Phase I and Phase II; Phase II consists of buildings, while Phase I has villas where the whole family can stay together. Some rooms are specially decorated for families. The restaurant serves private Cantonese and Huaiyang cuisine—dishes like coiled intestines, green broad beans, king crab, prawns, braised goose, and beef cubes... all full of flavor.

Day 3: Jiangnan Huabanwan

Admission: 29.5 yuan

Address: 888 Yuwan Road, Taihu New City, Wujiang District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

There's so much to do at Huabanwan: getting close to animals, entertainment projects, and complete dining options.

Peacock Science Park: The king of birds, peacocks, roam freely in the peacock garden. Initially, there were only a few dozen, but under careful breeding, there are now over 200. Visitors can feed and photograph them. Every day at 2:00 PM, you can also watch the spectacular sight of a flock of peacocks flying down from high up.

Many small animals you can get close to: little fragrant pigs, Nicholas turkeys, parrots, squirrels, black goats, large-eared rabbits, Dutch Call ducks...

Theme Garden: Queen of flowers, the European roses bloom in clusters; the hot air balloon installation is great for photos.

Meow Star Paradise:

This is an outdoor children's playground integrating play, sports, mental challenges, and fitness. It features a flying cat zip line, a tire playground, etc.

Earthen Stove Barbecue Area: The year we went to Zhenze, I vividly remember having a wild-fire rice meal at Taihu Snow. This time at Huabanwan, I found another such setup. Adults with kids or company teams can build their own stoves here. There are also ready-made stoves. A set meal includes ingredients, and you can barbecue too—great fun!

Price: Barbecue grill with 5 jin of charcoal + barbecue seasoning + oil is 150 yuan. Renting just a large stove is 280 yuan. The 680 yuan set meal includes ingredients for 6–8 people: one jin of pork, one chicken, one jin of shrimp, one fish, 10 eggs, 6 seasonal vegetables, and a fruit platter. You can also buy other skewers on-site.

Price: 168 yuan for a double set on weekdays, 208 yuan on weekends.

Business hours: 14:00–17:00, reservation required.

Address: Third floor, Le Méridien Suzhou Bay, 518 Yingbin Avenue, Taihu New City, Wujiang District, Suzhou

Le Méridien Suzhou Bay is right next to Taihu Lake. We had afternoon tea at the Latitude 31 lobby lounge on the third floor. Quite a few people were there, all enjoying the lake view through the large floor-to-ceiling windows and their leisure time. Besides the cherry blossom-themed afternoon tea, they also have a Chinese-themed one where you can enjoy seasonal qingtuan (green rice dumplings), snow meiren (mochi), macarons, etc., along with a seasonal fruit plate.

Address: No. 4 and No. 8, Building A, Nanshe Village, Chuangye Road, Wujiang District, Suzhou

Off-the-beaten-path ways to play in a popular tourist city: beyond the grand gardens of wealthy families, I prefer the rustic charm of the countryside. In the East Taihu resort area, Nanshe (pronounced shè) was called Jian Village in ancient times and was renowned as a typhoon shelter on Taihu. It was once a port and courier station for entering and exiting Taihu in the old Wujiang region, with a history of over a thousand years. While preserving the natural texture of Jiangnan water village, it also retains the marks of historical changes from the bustling days as a fishing wharf to the commercial decline of the agricultural era.

The old Nanku Village was a lively little market, a necessary passage for nearby fishermen heading to Taihu to fish. The Baixiangli · Nanshe Green Water Residence we stayed at is situated in this rare, well-preserved ancient village. A river runs through the village, with 14 buildings converted from original dwellings lining both banks: 6 guesthouses, 1 reception and meeting building, 1 Western café, 1 Taihu home-style restaurant, 1 supply and marketing cooperative, 1 earthen stove, 1 tea room, 1 flower house, and 1 KTV.

The guesthouse building is standalone, three stories high. The first floor is a common area with a kitchen, dining room, living room, and tea room... The second and third floors each have four bedrooms.

The room I stayed in was a family room: one large bed plus a bunk bed in the second bedroom. Outside the window, lush greenery—a vegetable plot on one side, wetlands and a small zoo on the other.

There's so much for guests to do here, embracing nature.

Follow the butler to pick vegetables in the field, then have the butler cook them in a large firewood wok, and it's on the table in no time.

On the other side of the river, there's a grassy area, a pond, several geese, ducks, rabbits, chubby little pigs... Daisies were in full bloom. And all these spots are perfect for photos. Baixiangli has two locations in Suzhou; the other is in Zhenze, which is also a town worth visiting.

The restaurants are located on both sides of the river—Western food on the east side, the supply co-op on the west. We had breakfast and dinner there. By the earthen stove next to the supply co-op, we watched the butler cook, the aroma of homely cooking filling the air.

The spring bamboo shoots were incredibly tender; the squirrel-shaped mandarin fish, crawfish, boneless chicken feet, and saltwater river shrimp were super delicious. Breakfast was simple but tasty: eggs, sweet potatoes, and especially sticky rice porridge with pickles and fermented bean curd. The guesthouse has barbecue, hot pot, and cooking utensils. Guests can cook for themselves if they want, just needing to bring their own ingredients—everything else is provided.

Address: Intersection of Zhongshan South Road and Lize Road, Taihu New City, Wujiang District, Suzhou

Shengjiaku Old Street lies on the south side of Wujiang Old Town, with the renowned Chuihong Bridge not far north. After Chuihong Bridge was built in 1048 during the Song Dynasty, commerce gradually flourished on both banks of the Wusong River. During the Hongzhi and Zhengde periods of the Ming Dynasty, the Sheng clan settled here for generations, hence the name Shengjiaku. For many years, Shengjiaku was one of the main commercial blocks in Wujiang County. The street boasted fish shops, butcher shops, southern goods stores, oil and sauce shops, flatbread shops, tofu shops, grocery stores, barber shops, tea houses—all sorts of businesses. Farmers from surrounding areas and fishermen from Taihu came here to sell their agricultural and aquatic products and buy daily necessities and tools. Every morning, residents from inside and outside the county used Shengjiaku as a food market to purchase all kinds of household items. To this day, Shengjiaku still retains its charm of small bridges, flowing water, and households, with dozens of shops lining the street.

Business hours: 10:00–22:00

Address: C3-17, China Qipao Town, Intersection of Zhongshan South Road and Lize Road, Wujiang District, Suzhou

Nowadays, physical bookstores are showing signs of revival, thanks to new formats: book selling + cultural and creative products + café. This Zhijian Bookstore on Shengjiaku Old Street in Suzhou is called the most beautiful bookstore in Wujiang, even in Suzhou.

It's filled with a rich cultural atmosphere. After traditional bookstores gradually faded, the emergence of new hybrid spaces saved a large portion of brick-and-mortar bookstores, some even gaining popularity.

The bookstore is spacious. The first area sells cultural and creative items and children's books, including picture books. Further in are rows of bookshelves with window-side seats for readers to sit and read.

The innermost area is even larger, with well-arranged displays at different heights. At the very back is also Zhijian Bookstore's Western restaurant, offering coffee and light meals, with attractive seating and varied lighting spots. The bookstore also holds activities like family reading, themed book clubs, and classic scripture copying. Unlike most bookstores, Zhijian Bookstore has, in addition to event and book sales spaces, a small cinema that screens many films for free.

Yu Space

Business hours: 10:00–22:00

Restaurant average spend: 200 yuan

Address: C1-7,8 Shengjiaku, Intersection of Zhongshan South Road and Lize Road, Wujiang District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

Beijing has Li Yugang's Yu Space, and one has opened on Shengjiaku Old Street in Suzhou as well. It also has four guest rooms. This is an aesthetic space integrating guesthouse, restaurant, tea room, theater, and exhibition. Everywhere is filled with Eastern poetry and traditional culture. The inn here bears the Huazhushe brand, a high-end line of Huazhu.

Corridors, walls, and floors are decorated with Kesi silk weaving, embroidery, round fans, tea items, ceramics, and agarwood. The ground floor has a tea room and scattered seating, with little bridges over flowing water and swirling mist—truly a fairyland. The second floor has private rooms, and the third floor is a performance space that can also be booked for private dining. The restaurant's dishes are stunning—the names, plating, and presentation are all beautiful and perfectly match Li Yugang's style. The lotus pastry dessert is served in a jewelry box; the yogurt even has the words "The Beauty of Seeing Jade" written on it. Chicken feet, peanut sprouts... every dish was delicious.

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