Discover Suzhou
Shantang Street
山塘街
A 3.5 km canal and street dug by the Tang poet-governor Bai Juyi to link the city to Tiger Hill. The eastern end is a lit-up tourist strip; walk west and it becomes a working residential canal.
The story
What makes this place special
The street exists because of a canal. In 825 the poet Bai Juyi, newly transferred from Hangzhou to be prefect of Suzhou, had the Shantang canal cut to improve movement between the city and Tiger Hill, and the street grew along its bank. It runs from Changmen, the old city gate, out to Tiger Hill - traditionally 'seven li of Shantang', with modern measurements between about 3.6 and 3.5km. The Qianlong emperor liked it well enough that a Suzhou street was reportedly copied in the Summer Palace in Beijing. Shantang was listed with Pingjiang Road as a national historic and cultural street in 2015.
What you’ll discover
A stone-paved lane along one bank of the Shantang canal, with houses and tea houses overhanging the water, hump-backed stone bridges, and hand-poled boats. The restored eastern section near Changmen is the busy commercial part, with snack shops, souvenir stalls, small museums and an evening lantern display reflected in the canal; walk west and the street thins out into real residential Suzhou for most of its length before arriving at Tiger Hill at the far end.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- The restored bit is only the first few hundred metres. Keep walking west and within ten minutes you are on an ordinary canal street with people living on it - quieter, much more interesting, and almost empty.
- Two different boats are sold. The short loops from the piers inside the scenic area cover the busy eastern section; the longer trips from the Bai Juyi pier near Changmen run out towards Panmen and Hanshan Temple. The long one is the better buy if you want the canal rather than the shopfronts.
- The obvious trip is to take the boat up the canal to Tiger Hill and walk back, which is the historic function of the waterway and avoids a bus.
- The centre is at its worst on weekend afternoons after about 4pm. Go in the morning, or go at night for the lanterns and reflections - Tonggui Bridge is the standard night photograph.
- Compared with Pingjiang Road, Shantang is longer, rougher and less manicured. If Pingjiang felt too polished, this is the answer; if you only have time for one, Pingjiang is the prettier short walk.
When to come
Morning for quiet or after dark for the lanterns on the water. Spring and autumn; weekday over weekend.
Getting around
Partly. The street is flat stone paving along the canal bank and a wheelchair can do long stretches of it, but the paving is uneven old flagstone, the canal bridges are stepped with no ramps so crossing between banks is not possible unaided, and the western sections narrow. Boats need a step down into the hull. A bad knee is fine if you keep to one bank.
Worth knowing before you go
Come after dark for the lanterns reflecting in the canal, then walk west past Xinmin Bridge where the souvenir shops stop and real life resumes.
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