Wuxi · Jiangsu
Wuxi is the Taihu Lake city of southern Jiangsu — cherry blossom at Yuantouzhu, an 88 m Grand Buddha at Lingshan, Huishan clay figurines and the sweetest ribs in China.
The short version
The place itself
Wuxi is the Taihu Lake city, and Taihu is the whole point of it. The third-largest freshwater lake in China sits against its southern edge, the Yangtze runs to the north, the Grand Canal cuts straight through the middle, and the low hills of Xi Shan and Hui Shan rise right at the city's western edge. Water is not a backdrop here; it is the reason the city exists.
The name is a joke that went wrong — 'Wu' for the surrounding hills, 'xi' for tin, which the hills were said to hold until the tin ran out in the Han dynasty and left the place called 'no tin'. The real history is older and better: around 3,000 years ago Taibo, elder son of the Zhou king, walked out of the succession dispute at home and settled here, founding the state of Wu. In the Ming and Qing the reclaimed polders of the north made it one of the empire's granaries, and by the early 20th century its mills and silk filatures had made it one of China's first industrial towns.
That split personality is what visitors actually see. On one side are classical gardens, temple halls, the canal and the old towns; on the other are wide new boulevards, a mountain of glass towers and one of the highest reported happiness levels in the country. It is a competitive, fast-working city that is also lovely to walk around.
For a visitor it divides cleanly into three days: the lake, the mountain-with-a-Buddha, and the old town-and-canal quarter. Add a fourth and you can reach Yixing's caves and bamboo sea to the south-west, or Jiangyin on the Yangtze, where the traveller Xu Xiake was born.
Pins are plotted from real latitude and longitude on a 5° graticule. This is a schematic orientation diagram, not a political map — no boundaries are drawn.
A peninsula pushing into Taihu whose tip looks like a turtle's head, and the classic viewpoint over the lake. From late March to mid-April some 30,000 cherry trees in the valley turn it into the single most photographed spring scene in Jiangsu; the boat to Taihu Fairy Island is included in the ¥105 ticket.
An 88 m bronze Buddha on a hill above the lake, with the gilded Brahma Palace below it — Dongyang wood carving, Dunhuang murals, glazed glasswork and cloisonné all in one building. The Nine Dragons Bathing the Buddha fountain show runs four times daily; entry is ¥210, the most expensive ticket in the city and the one to decide on before you go.
The hill-and-garden complex on the city's western edge holds Jichang Garden, a Ming garden that is quieter than anything in Suzhou, and Hui Shan Spring, ranked the second-best spring under heaven — the water that gave Abing the melody of 'Erquan Yingyue'. Park entry ¥10; the ¥70 combo adds the scenic area and the cable car.
A free quarter of two crossing streets at the foot of the hill, lined with old ancestral halls and private gardens — over a hundred clan temples in one place, which is rare anywhere in China. Also the home of Huishan clay figurines; stop for tofu pudding and soup dumplings on the snack street.
White walls, grey tiles and houses built straight onto the water, now filled with coffee, bars and studios. Come at dusk, look at the reflections from the bridge, then walk the pedestrian stretch — the clearest picture anywhere of how an old canal town becomes a night out.
Liyuan is the water garden on Lihu Lake where Fan Li is said to have retired with Xi Shi (¥45 in season, ¥60 with a boat); Meiyuan, the Rong family's private garden, is the place for plum blossom in February (¥60). Both are on the ¥170 combo ticket.
Sunan Shuofang International (WUX) sits about 20 km south-east of the centre with routes to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Macau, Bangkok and Taipei; the airport bus to the railway station runs roughly 24 times a day, costs ¥5 and takes under 40 minutes, and a taxi into town is ¥40–50. By rail Wuxi is on both the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed line and the Shanghai–Nanjing intercity line: about 1 hour from Shanghai, 20 minutes from Suzhou and around 1 hour from Nanjing. Note which station you want — Wuxi station's south square serves classic trains and the north square the high-speed ones, Wuxi East is on the Beijing–Shanghai line and a good hour out by bus, and Wuxi New District station is on the intercity line only 3 km from the airport.
Inside the city, buses are ¥1 on a standard service and ¥2 air-conditioned, and nearly every sight has a bus stop named after it: K1 from the station's east square runs to Yuantouzhu's Chongshan gate in 30–40 minutes for ¥2, K87 goes via Xihui Park to the Dushan gate, and Liyuan, Meiyuan, Lingshan, Three Kingdoms City and Water Margin City all have their own stops. Taxis start at ¥10 for 3 km. Public bikes exist but run on two incompatible systems — visitors can rent by the hour (about ¥5) with a desk at the Yuantouzhu gate, and it is worth it for the lakeside roads.
| Month | Weather | Crowds | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 12°C / 4°C · cool, damp | Quiet | Good |
| February | 14°C / 6°C · cool, damp | Very busy | Good |
| March | 18°C / 10°C · clear and mild | Moderate | Best |
| April | 24°C / 16°C · clear and mild | Moderate | Best |
| May | 28°C / 21°C · cool, damp | Busy | OK |
| June | 32°C / 25°C · very hot, humid | Moderate | OK |
| July | 35°C / 28°C · cool, damp | Busy | Avoid |
| August | 34°C / 27°C · cool, damp | Busy | Avoid |
| September | 29°C / 23°C · very hot, humid | Moderate | OK |
| October | 24°C / 17°C · clear and mild | Very busy | Best |
| November | 18°C / 11°C · clear and mild | Quiet | Best |
| December | 13°C / 6°C · cool, damp | Quiet | Good |
Three days cover it honestly: day one for Yuantouzhu and the lake, day two for Lingshan and the canal at night, day three for Xihui Park, Huishan Ancient Town and the old shopping streets. A fourth day is best spent outside the city — Yixing's Shanjuan and Zhanggong caves, the bamboo sea and Yunhu lake to the south-west, with a Yixing clay teapot as the souvenir; or Jiangyin to the north for Huaxi Village, the Yangtze at E'binzui park and Xu Xiake's former home.
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Only if huge religious spectacle is your thing — that is the honest answer most travellers give. The Buddha, the Brahma Palace and the Nine Dragons fountain show are genuinely impressive and the hill air is clean, but it is a full morning plus a long bus ride for the most expensive ticket in Wuxi. If you are lukewarm on Buddhist art, spend the day at Yuantouzhu and Huishan instead.
Late March into mid-April, with the cherry festival running through that window in the Cherry Blossom Valley above the lake. Peak bloom moves with the weather, so check the park's own notices before you book; go early in the day, because the valley paths are shoulder to shoulder by mid-morning.
More than you would expect: Huishan Ancient Town, Nanchang Street on the canal, the temple shopping streets of Nanchan and Chong'an, Qian Zhongshu's former home, and four lakeside parks — Lihu Park, Changguangxi Wetland Park, Jinchengwan Park and Lihu Central Park. Of the free ones Lihu Park is the pick, and it is not the same place as Liyuan, though they are close together.
Wuxi ribs, first — dark, glossy, bone-soft and sweeter than anything else in Jiangsu. Then soup dumplings (Wang Xingji is the old name in the centre), crab-roe dumplings in season, Taihu's three whites of whitebait, whitefish and white shrimp, gluten balls stuffed with pork, and a bowl of plain scallion-oil noodles. Yangshan peaches from late May are the fruit to buy.
Rail, and it could not be simpler: about 20 minutes to Suzhou, roughly an hour to Shanghai and about an hour to Nanjing, with dozens of trains a day on the Shanghai–Nanjing intercity and Beijing–Shanghai high-speed lines. Coaches to Shanghai run about 20 times a day for ¥49–54 and take around two hours.
Yes, and a comfortable one. Changzhou is 20 minutes west by train, Suzhou 20 minutes east, and the canal cities of Zhenjiang and Yangzhou on the north bank are within an hour or so. It is also the natural place to sleep if you want Suzhou's gardens without Suzhou's hotel prices.
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