Pingjiang Road Old Town

Pingjiang Road has been one of the canonical Suzhou tourist destinations for at least two decades, but unlike most equivalent restored-old-town developments in China, it retains substantial authentic residential character. The 1.6-kilometre street, running parallel to the Pingjiang Canal, traces the historical commercial spine of the late-imperial Suzhou old town. The cross-streets and alleys leading off Pingjiang are still residential at weekday hours, with elderly residents on doorstep stools and small grocery shops on the corners.

The Couple's Garden Retreat (Ou Yuan) at the southern end of Pingjiang Road is one of the smaller UNESCO-listed Suzhou classical gardens — substantial enough to merit a 90-minute visit but not as crowded as the Humble Administrator's Garden. The garden's design plays with the asymmetric layout of two adjoining residential complexes whose former owners were a married scholar-painter couple.

The Pingtan storytelling tradition — Suzhou's distinctive narrative-music form, performed by a pair of singers with sanxian (three-stringed lute) and pipa — survives in several restored teahouses on the street. Performances run several hours; visitors can sit briefly and watch a single piece before moving on. The performance is in Suzhou dialect, which is not mutually intelligible with standard Mandarin; the music itself remains accessible.

Tongdexing and Yelaiqing on the street are venerable Suzhou-style food shops with continuous histories from the late Qing or early Republican period.