Think of enjoying the Mid-Autumn Festival a week from tomorrow under a full moon at a tranquil garden with your family. Or, enjoy the National Day holiday at an ancient temple fair. Suzhou, which some have compared to “Heaven on Earth,” awaits with bountiful beauty and a rich cultural heritage. With holidays just around the corner, Suzhou invites visitors to watch traditional Chinese kunqu and pingtan operas at picturesque gardens, experience old customs of celebration, explore flower arrangements and bonsai, and try freshly picked “chicken head rice” and water chestnuts. Suzhou could make for a totally different and totally enjoyable holiday season, Jiang Xinhua reports.

Tiger HillLocated five kilometers west of the center of Suzhou, Tiger Hill is named after a white tiger that legend says appears on the hill at the burial site of Helu, who was the King of Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC). Su Dongpo, a famous poet during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) said that it is a great pity to go to Suzhou without visiting Tiger Hill. Renowned as the first scenic spot in Suzhou, it is famous for its beautiful scenery, long history and many attractions with mysterious stories. Tiger Hill is 34.3 meters above sea level and covers an area of 210,000 square meters.

Duanliang Palace, the second gate of Tiger Hill, also is known as the Broken Beam Palace and was built during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). It is famous for its construction technique — you can see the main beam at the top is broken and supported by two small wooden beams. Using the lever principle of mechanics, this technique helps to hold the roof up. Moreover, the palace is held together with wood and bamboo fasteners without any metal nails.

Then you can see a big stone split into two parts. There is an old legend that says King Helu asked the husband-and-wife team of sword-making masters to make the sharpest sword in the world and sacrifice 300 baby boys and girls within 100 days. The wife, Mo Ye, threw herself into the smelting furnace instead of sacrificing the babies. Finally, the husband, Gan Jiang, made two swords and decided to give the king one of them because he knew the king was so greedy that it would force him to make more swords. So, he saved one of the swords and gave the other one to the king. In order to test the sharpness of the sword, King Helu split the stones into two parts. At that time, Gan Jiang took out the other sword and the sword suddenly became a dragon. Then he rode the dragon and became a sword god. Actually, the stone is common volcanic rock that split into two parts after many years of weathering.

One of the highlights of Tiger Hill is the bonsai collected in a garden called “Garden of All Sceneries.” Located on the east side of Tiger Hill, the garden features the most bonsai in Suzhou. Built with rockeries, waterfalls and pavilions, each bonsai represents a particular bit of scenery.

Lots of fun at fair

The annual Autumn Temple Fair, in its 19th year, will run from September 28 to October 20 to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day. The fair got its start with the Shantang Temple Fair, which is celebrated with dragon and lion dances and clamshell fairy dancing to welcome the god of fortune with gongs and drums. The fair features three parts including traditional local performances, a live handicraft arts show and local food stalls. The central stage is at the Sunwu Parade Ground. Visitors can watch the performances reproducing the bustling environment of a temple fair in Suzhou. Along the road, some handicraft masters will show you how to make dough or cut a seal with your name on it. The local food stalls are gathered at the west side of Duanliang Palace. The street features more than 10 kinds of Suzhou snacks including rice dumpling candy, sesame pancakes, uncongealed tofu and pan-fried buns. Visitors also can play interactive games like throwing sandbags, darts and ferrule to experience Chinese traditional folk games at Xiaowudang.The Lingering GardenRenowned as one of “the best four gardens in China,” the Lingering Garden — covering an area of 20,000 square meters — features exquisite landscapes and waterscapes, precious stone tablets of Chinese calligraphy, elegant bonsai and the 5.7-meter-high Taihu Lake stone — the Cloud-Capped Peak. The garden was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997.

The annual traditional Chinese performances in the garden, which run through October 30, provide visitors with a great opportunity to have a close look at Chinese traditional cultural heritage and the culture of the Wu area.

Named “Wuyu Lanxun” (kunqu opera with fragrant orchid), a performance features pingtan — a traditional combination of songs and storytelling — kunqu opera — one of the oldest forms of Chinese opera in existence — and ancient musical instruments, the guzheng, guqin and pipa.

Standing in the Green Shade Pavilion, you can watch a female singer dressed in traditional costume singing pingtan while playing a pipa in a boat floating on the pond. It’s a beautiful experience to feel the cadence of the song while relaxing in such a beautiful and tranquil environment.

Walking through the Fairy Isle, covered with trailing flowers, at Daiyun Pavilion you can enjoy a live performance on the guzheng — a Chinese plucked zither with 18 or more strings and moveable bridges — and the guqin, a plucked seven-stringed member of the zither family. The soothing sound of the guzheng has been compared to a stream flowing down a mountainside.

Walk along the 700-meter path and you can sit and watch kunqu opera, which originated in Wu more than 600 years ago.

There is an old saying that kunqu opera is so rare that it only can be heard in heaven. Well, here you can enjoy the kunqu in Suzhou — heaven on Earth.

Excerpts of famous Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) play “The Peony Pavilion” are featured.

For a performance schedule, ask at the information desk at the gate or check the notices outside each pavilion.The Humble Administrator’s GardenOften described as the pinnacle of Suzhou gardens, the Humble Administrator’s Garden features elegant pavilions and bridges set among a maze of connected pools and islands. As the lotus blooms near their end, an off-season chrysanthemum exhibition from September 15 to October 10 brings new color to the garden.

As one of the “Four Gentlemen” among plants and flowers, the chrysanthemum is symbolic of nobility and elegance. Using off-season cultivating techniques, the garden features early-blooming varieties. More than 3,000 pots featuring 200 varieties will be displayed in six indoor and outdoor areas — including the east garden lawn, Zhuiyun peak, maple tree garden and crape myrtle garden.

A highlight is the east garden lawn. Covering an area of 500 square meters, it features chrysanthemums in different colors and sizes displayed on wooden frames or rockeries near the lake or waterfall to showcase the exquisite garden. Visitors can also watch folk music performances and live Chinese painting and calligraphy at the Hall of Distant Fragrance, at the center of the garden. Sipping aromatic tea near the tranquil pond is guaranteed to leave you relaxed, say garden officials.

“We want to get visitors involved in interactive cultural activities and to absorb them,” said Lu Wei, an official from The Humble Administrator’s Garden Administrative Office. “Not only do we create the atmosphere of a festival, but we also encourage them to learn more about local culture,” added Lu.The Lion Forest GardenThe Lion Forest Garden not only boasts all the features of classic gardens in Suzhou, but also has precious limestone from Taihu Lake. Renowned as the Kingdom of Rockeries, it is the only garden to have survived from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

Placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000, recently it was honored as the best tourist attraction that fully delivers Chinese culture in the 19th Asia Tourism Gold Awards.

The garden’s name comes from its limestone displays that resemble lions in different poses: some playing, some sleeping, some roaring. Created by Yuan Dynasty Buddhist monk Tianru, it was originally a temple. After Tianru’s death, the garden was abandoned and became dilapidated.

Famous Ming Dynasty painter Ni Zan helped restore the garden and brought it fame by making it the subject of a painting.

During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), emperors Kangxi and Qianlong visited the garden and liked it so much that they built replicas.

The garden is famous for its 1,154-square-meter elaborate grotto featuring a maze of nine paths winding through 21 caves across three levels with ponds and waterfalls. Forget about your destination in this labyrinth, just follow your instinct and then enjoy totally different scenery when you emerge.

The garden is also home to a museum featuring traditional stones.East Line featuring history and culture:

Start from the Humble Administrator’s Garden and Suzhou Garden Museum. Then walk along Dongbei Street — you can visit Suzhou Museum for free. Next, walk along Yuanlin Road for 10 minutes to the Lion Forest Garden. Five minutes away is the Suzhou Folk Customs Museum.

East Line featuring local scenery:

Walk along Ganjiang Road E. and climb the Xiang Gate, where you can admire the view of Suzhou University and the city moat. There is a square near the gate with sculptures, while the Suzhou Old City Wall Museum will open at the end of this year. Then you can visit Couple’s Retreat Garden. Pingjiang Road has a history stretching back 800 years and features stylish shops, local food stalls and bars.

What to eat:

There are many local snack stalls and souvenir shops on Dongbei Street outside the Humble Administrator’s Garden.

Guanqian Street is one of the most popular eating, shopping and entertainment streets in Suzhou. It gets its name as it is located in front of a Taoist temple — Xuanmiao Guan. It has many historic local restaurants and shops, including Songhe Tower and Deyue Tower for Suzhou-style dishes, Lugaojian for spiced pork with homemade red sauce, Caizhizhai for candy and roasted seeds and nuts and Huangtianyuan for steamed cake.

West Line:

Take Tour Bus No. 3 to Maple Bridge. Five kilometers west of the old city of Suzhou, Maple Bridge is famous for the Hanshan Temple and the poem “A Night Mooring near Maple Bridge” by Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) poet Zhang Ji.

Take No. 442 bus to the Lingering Garden, then Tour Bus No. 1 to the terminal and Tiger Hill.

Located in the northwest of Suzhou, Shantang Street — also called Seven-mile Shantang — connects Chang Gate in the east with Tiger Hill in the west. You can travel by boat on Shantang Canal to see street life and buy lotus seeds, gordon euryale seeds and water chestnuts.

Stone Road is also a popular shopping and entertainment  street near Chang Gate. Try “Three White in Taihu Lake” including Taihu Lake silver fish, white fish and white shrimp.