China Travel Forum

[Edward]

I am looking for a camping site in Suzhou or any nearby town in Shanghai. My family want to go camping for 3 days this on coming national holiday and we don't know any nice place can anyone suggest some place? Edward

[kamal]

Does that mean that you will spend about 3 days near Suzhou or Shanghai?
Here I would recommend the Tongli Town, a place of ancient charm.
Compared with other similar towns in Jiangnan, Tongli enjoys these superiorities not to be overlooked.
I. Rich water town ambience (Venice in the East)

Occupying some 1 kilometer square and embraced by 5 lakes, Tongli is divided into 7 islets by 15 streams running through in the pattern of "III", while 49 stone bridges in various styles and built in different dynasties link them all together. Houses have been built along the waterfront and each household could be reached via water. Natural and amazing, Tongli is a typical water ancient town in Jiangnan with poetic scenery of "low bridges, running water and small villages", and thus has wons its fame of "Venice in the east".

II. Complex buildings (Architectural clusters built in Ming & Qing Dynasty)


Tongli enjoys a long history. Since Song & Yuan dynasty, Ming & Qing dynasty in particular, quite a few officials and scholars prefered to built gardens in this town.

According to the town annals, from 1271AD to 1911AD, 38 residential gardens, 47 temples and other religious buildings were built in Tongli. There are grand compounds, delicate garden annexes, among which there're dozens of well-preserved ones built in Ming Dynasty such as Gengle Hall, Sanxie Hall, Wuhemenlou Gatetower, Cheng'en Hall, Rengjidaoyuan taoist temple.

While those built in Qing Dynasty include Tuisiyuan Garen, Jiayintang Hall, Chongbentang Hall, Wubentang Hall, and Chen Qubing former residence etc. Featured civilian architecture such as firewalls and stone gates are everywhere. The oldest well-preserved stone gate of the Ye family is a 9-layered one, very rare in the ancient towns of Jiangnan.


Above 65% of the buildings in Tongli were build in Ming & Qing Dynasty, so we call them "Ming & Qing Architectural Clusters".


III. Boundless cultural content (Historical museum)

Inscribed on the town history record, from Song Dynasty to the end of Qing Dynastry, 1 "Zhuangyuan" (National Best Scholars), 42 Jinshi ( scholars at national level), 93 academic and martial "Juren" (scholars or warriors at provincial level ) were from Tongli. Yeyin, a poet in Nansong Dynasty; the great gardening artist Ji Cheng, the desiner of "Yuanzhi Garden", and Shen Guifeng, the Defense Minister in Ming Dynasty; Chen Qubing, one of the "stars" in Xinhai Revolution...


IV. A place of traditional charm
[waiting for your own exploration...]