Wu's 514 BC capital still marketed as heaven on earth
Suzhou in Jiangsu, founded in 514 BC, is eastern China's tourist and high-end manufacturing hub and cradle of Wu culture. Classical gardens joined UNESCO lists in 1997 and 2000; with Hangzhou it is still nicknamed heaven on earth.
Baiyue tribes known as the Gou Wu lived in villages on the hills above the marshes of Lake Tai by the Spring and Autumn period. Sima Qian relates that the Zhou lord Taibo founded the state of Wu at nearby Wuxi in the 11th century BC, and the court later moved to Gusu, named for a local mountain. King Helü built a new capital in 514 BC, planned with his minister Wu Zixu on a symbolic grid of nine squares with the palace at the centre. The name Suzhou became official in AD 589 under the Sui; the Su is shortened from Gusu, said to mean satisfied place in the old Yue tongue.
After Qin conquered the region in 222 BC the city headed the vast Kuaiji Commandery, and Xiang Liang and his nephew Xiang Yu launched their revolt from here as the Qin collapsed. Northern migrants swelled the population by the Eastern Han, and the Grand Canal later made Suzhou the southeast's centre of industry and trade. The Tang poet Bai Juyi dug the Shantang Canal out to Tiger Hill, and in 1035 Fan Zhongyan founded the Confucian Temple, which evolved into a modern high school.
From the 10th century it was among the biggest cities in the world that was not a capital, a distinction it held until Shanghai overtook it around 1850. In 1356 the rebel Zhang Shicheng made it his capital; Zhu Yuanzhang, soon the first Ming emperor, took it after a ten-month siege in 1367, tore down central walls and taxed its leading families severely, yet the city bounced back quickly.
Since reforms began in 1978 its GDP has grown about 14 per cent a year for 35 years, and it had 5 million registered residents in 2023. Nature Index 2025 ranks it 33rd worldwide for scientific output. Silk, Kunqu opera, canals, stone bridges and pagodas remain its calling cards.
Source: Suzhou
