As the transportation hub in the Taihu Lake area, Wuxi is located in the Yangtze River Delta with Taihu Lake to the south, Yangtze River to the north, Suzhou to the east and Changzhou to the west, through which the Beijing-Hanghzou Grand Canal runs, and it has long been famous as a land of milk and honey since ancient times.
Wuxi is a famous historical and cultural city of China with a long history of over 3,000 years. As early as in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC), Wuxi served as the political and cultural center of South China and produced a host of talented people. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Wuxi was very prosperous in industries such as brick-making, pottery-making, silk reeling and weaving. Wuxi has been famous for its industry and commerce since the 20th century, earning itself the nickname of “the Little Shanghai”.
Highlights of Wuxi
As a pearl of Taihu Lake, Wuxi is not only famous for its natural scenery and man-made landscapes, but it’s also famous for its wonderful festivals. The scenic spots of Wuxi are rather far away from one another, of which famous ones include the following:
- Turtle Head Island, a comprehensive scenic area with Taihu Lake,mountain scenery and garden architecture combined as one;it’s praised as “the First Attraction of Taihu Lake”.
- Lingshan Statue of Buddha, the tallest bronze statue of Buddha is 88 meters (289 feet)tall and is a holy site for Buddhist devotees.
Lingshan Grand Buddha- Three Kingdoms City, a city built for filming the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is located at the foot of Junzhang Mountain and is near Taihu Lake.
- Tang Film City, a city fully recreating the prosperous scene of the Tang Dynasty(618-907), is located at the foot of Taihu Mountain and is composed of Tang Street, the Imperial Garden, Huaqing Pool and the Imperial Palace.
- Donglin Academy, Qingming Bridge and Nanchan Temple fully display the historical connotations of Wuxi;and Jichang Garden, Liyuan Garden and Meiyuan Garden perfectly reveal the beauty of the gardens of the south Yangtze River area.
In addition, a number of festivals are also highlights of traveling to Wuxi, represented by the Taibo Temple Fair (heldat Meicun Town from February 4 to February 6), Wuxi International Plum Culture Festival (held at Meiyuan Garden in March), Wuxi Peach Blossom Festival (held at Yangshan from March to April), the Porcelain Art Festival (at Yixing in May)and Taihu Lake Tourism Festival (at Taihu Lake area from September to October), during which you can purchase authentic Wuxi souvenirs and specialties, such as dark-red enameled potteries and clay figures.
Food and Restaurants
Wuxi dishes belong to Jiangsu Cuisine (one of the eight cuisines of China), featuring light and sweet foods, and the famousWuxi dishes include pork steak with sauce, fried gluten puffs, steamed dumplings with pork,oil-dried bean curds and oil-grilled turnip cakes. Below are famous Wuxi restaurants that locals highly recommend.
Wuxi’s Grandma’s Kitchen is decorated in a Shanghai style, where the signature dishes are red-cooked pork, red-cooked chicken with a tea flavor and stir-fried tofu in a hot sauce.
Location: on the 7th floor, Babaiban, 168, Zhongshan Road, Chong’an District, Wuxi
Bus Routes: 24, 81, 35, 65, 66, 92, 118 and 313.
This restaurant is decorated in a popular style, where the dishes such as golden mushrooms with bacon and boiled fish with beansprouts in hot chili oil are favored by locals and foreigners alike.
Location:69, Renming Central Road, Chong’an District, Wuxi
Bus Routes: 216, 118, 11, 12, 20, 211, 216, 312, 100 and 316
The restaurant highlights dishes such as pickled chicken feet and smoked fish.
Location: 240, Chong’an District, Wuxi
Bus Routes:100, 102, 10, 63, 23, 311, 57, 61, 705, 715, 722 and 118
This restaurant is famous for its seafood and stewed intestines in Wuxi.
Location: 2108, Guangrui Road, Wuxi
Bus Routes:17, 311, 3, 52, 617, 711, 75, 61 and 55
This restaurant highlights its beef steak with salad and green tea cakes in Wuxi.
Location: 288, Hubin Commercial Street, Binhu District, Wuxi
Bus Routes:505, 11, 131, 1, 206, 315, 33, 36, 395, 505, 51, 56, 68, 72 and 73
- Grandma's Kitchen (Wai Po Jia)
- Xiyangyang Restaurant
- Sanfengqiao Meat Restaurant
- Putian Flavor Restaurant
- Hubin Impression Restaurant
Accommodation
Taihu Lake is the highlight of Wuxi, which attracts millions of visitors from spring to autumn each year.As a result, Wuxi is very rich in hotels and hostels with prices ranging from 150 to over 1,000 yuan. It’s rather far from one sightseeing spot to another in Wuxi, so you’re advised to book a hotel in advance according to your chosen travel destinations.The hotels of Wuxi are mainly distributed in Wuxi Railway Station, Taihu Lake and Huishan Scenic Area, and below is a list of highly-recommended hotels for your reference.
Location:30, Hefeng Road, New District, Wuxi
Location:49, Liangxi Road, Binhu District, Wuxi
Location:1, Xianqian East Street, Chong'an District, Wuxi
Location:18, Yonghe Road, Nanchang District, Wuxi
Location:8, East Jincheng Road, Xin District, Wuxi
- Pullman Wuxi New Lake
- Sheraton Wuxi Binhu Hotel
- Jinling Hotel Wuxi
- Kempinski Hotel Wuxi
- Landison Plaza Hotel
Best Times to Visit Wuxi
The Lake of the Li GardenWuxi belongs to a northern subtropical monsoon climate region and has four distinctive seasons, featuring a hot and rainy summer, a cool autumn, and warm spring and winter. Wuxi has an annual mean temperature of 16.2°C (61°F), an annual average precipitation of 1,121 millimeters and 1,924 hours of sunshine on average per year, and the hottest and the coldest months of the year are July and January respectively.
The best times to visit Wuxi are in spring and autumn. .You can not only appreciate plum flowers, azaleas, cherry blossoms, peach blossoms and magnolia flowers in full bloom in spring, but you also have a chance to participate in the temple fairs in Wuxi. In autumn, you can taste aquatic products and juicy peaches in Wuxi.
Transportation
Wuxi is the transportation hub in East China, where a dimensional transportation network of airways, highways and waterways has been formed, and the inner-city transportation is also convenient.
Airway
Wuxi Shuofang Airport is 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) south-east of the city center, where direct flights to and from Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Kunming, Chengdu, Xiamen, Wuhan, Chongqing and Hong Kong are available. The airport shuttle buses run from Zhonglv Hotel to the airport at 6:45 am, 11:30 am and 1:30 pm each day, and bus 7 will also take you from the city center to the airport. The international flights to Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok and Jeju are also available at Shuofang Airport.
In addition, coaches from Wuxi Bus Station to Shanghai Hongqiao Airport run at 6:05 am, 6:50 am, 7:30 am, 8:35 am, 9:05 am, 9:50 am, 10:50 am, 11:55 am, 12:45 pm, 1:45 pm and 3:25 pm each day. Coaches to Wuxi Shuofang Airport run every hour from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport from 10:30 am to 8:15 pm each day.
Railway
Wuxi is an important railway hub in East China, where Shanghai-Nanjing Railway and Xinyi-Changxing Railway meet.The trains to and from Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Yichang, Beijing, Ningbo, Huaihua, Nanning and Guilin are available at Wuxi Railway Station (1, Chezhan Road, Chong'an District of Wuxi).
Highway
Wuxi is at the crossroad of the highway network of Jiangsu Province, where the Shanghai-Nanjing Highway, Wuxi-Jiangyin Highway and Wuxi-Yinxing Highway meet, and Jiangyin Yangtze River Bridge crosses the south Yangtze River area and the north Yangtze River area. There are three long-distance bus stations in Wuxi, which are listed as follows:
The buses from this station mainly leave for the cross-provincial cities as well as Jiangyin, Changshu and Zhangjiagang, and public bus 20, 33, 35, 60, 601, 705, 711, 716 and 735 will take you there from the city center.
Location:114, Tonghui East Road, west of Wuxi Railway Station.
The buses from the terminal mainly depart for Suqian, Huaiyin, Nantong, Qiandao Lake, Wenzhou, Anhui Province, Zhejiang Province and Shandong Province, and public bus 6, 17, 26, 31, 33 and 208 will take you there from Wuxi city center.
Location:88, Zhanbei Road, Wuxi.
The buses departing for Shanghai, Nanjing, Nantong, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Hefei, Jiangyin, Zhangjiagang, Liyang, Lishui and Gaochun are available in the bus station, and public bus 20, 40, 41, 52, 56, 82, 88, 112, 131, 203 and 310 will take you there from Wuxi city center.
Location: 7, Qiangqing Road, Wuxi.
- Wuxi Bus Station
- Wuxi Passenger Terminal
- West Bus Station of Wuxi
Inner-City Transportation
All the inner-city buses are self-serviced with ticket fares of one yuan for the common buses and two yuan for the air-conditioned ones.The starting price of taxis is 8 yuan for the first three kilometers (1.9 miles); you’ll be charged 2.31 yuan per kilometer from the 3rd kilometer to the 8th kilometer.
