Wuxi

Prosperous Jiangnan city on the shore of Taihu, one of China's largest freshwater lakes. Known for lake crab, the canal quarter of Nanchan Temple, Lingshan Grand Buddha, and the traditional gardens of Jichang Yuan.

Wuxi is a prosperous city in southern Jiangsu, positioned between the northern shore of Taihu (Lake Tai) and the Grand Canal, roughly 130 km northwest of Shanghai and 50 km from Suzhou. The city's modern economy is driven by manufacturing and the semiconductor industry, but its historical character is that of a Jiangnan canal town — a lakeside and waterway city that for centuries traded silk, grain and pottery along the network of rivers and canals connecting the Yangtze Delta.

Taihu, covering roughly 2,400 square kilometres, is the third-largest freshwater lake in China and the economic and scenic heart of the Wuxi region. The lake's western and southern shores, accessible by boat or road from the city, hold fishing villages, small islands and the hills of Mashan. Taihu hairy crabs — the mitten crabs of the lake, harvested from October — are among the most prized freshwater crustaceans in Chinese cuisine and draw seasonal visitors from Shanghai and further afield.

In the old city, the Nanchan Temple commercial area around the Grand Canal preserves a stretch of traditional architecture alongside canal life — older brick warehouses, stone bridges and narrow lanes that have been partly restored for tourism. The Qingming Bridge area nearby is a more authentically preserved stretch of canal streetscape from the Ming and Qing periods.

Lingshan, on the western lakeshore, holds a 88-metre bronze figure of Sakyamuni Buddha (completed 1996) within a large Buddhist complex — one of the taller outdoor standing Buddha figures in China. Jichang Garden, a classical garden from the Ming dynasty (16th century), is smaller and less commercially managed than Suzhou's famous gardens and is sometimes preferred by visitors who find Suzhou's major gardens too crowded.