Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Exhibit at the Suzhou Silk Museum
David Shen Kai/Apa Publications
9am-4.30pm; charge), which recounts the history of silk in China. Especially interesting are
the rare antique silk pieces and the section on sericulture: one room has large woven pans
holding wriggling silkworms (in season) feasting on mulberry leaves, while on another shelf
silk cocoons sit neatly in rows. Weavers demonstrate how young girls ruined their hands in
the old days by plunging them into boiling water to separate the cocoon threads into single
strands.
New Suzhou has expanded on either side of the Old Town.
Suzhou Industrial Park
(SIP)
, a cooperation between the Chinese and Singaporean governments, fans out to the
east around Jinji Lake and is home to high-end hotels, restaurants and nightlife, especially in
the lakeside Ligongdi district, filled with whitewashed, heritage-style buildings and arched
bridges.
