Suzhou Taihu National Tourism Vacation Zone is one of the first 12 national tourist resorts approved by the State Council in 1992. It is located in the 15 kilometers southwest away from the ancient city area of Suzhou, facing Xukou Town in the east, the foot of Shigong Mountain in the south, Taihu Lake in the west and the foot of Dome Mountain in the north. With a land area of 171 square kilometers, it also covers an area of 854 square kilometers of Taihu Lake. Under the jurisdiction of Suzhou Taihu National Tourism Vacation Zone, there are totally 22 villagers' committees and 11 residents' committees, with a registered population of about 120,000, in Xishan Agricultural Park (Jinting Town), Guangfu Town and Xiangshan Street.
There are 35 tourist scenic spots of various kinds in Suzhou Taihu National Tourism Vacation Zone. Xishan Agricultural Park (Jinting Town), reputed as the largest island in China’s fresh-water lakes, is a National 4A-level Tourist Attraction, a Taihu Lake Scenic Spot and a provincial famous town of history and culture. It has a national forest park, a national modern agricultural demonstration park, a national geological park and 2 national famous villages of history and culture. It focuses on promoting the integral development of agriculture, culture, sports and tourism industry with modern agriculture as a driving force. Guangfu Town is also a national famous town of history and culture, a National 4A-level Tourist Attraction and a Taihu Lake Scenic Spot. Well-renowned for its exquisite carving craftwork and flowers and trees, it focuses on propelling the prosperity of the craft industry powered by the growth of technological and ecological towns in the Suzhou High-tech Zone. Xiangshan Street, the core area of the vacation zone, is a town featuring sports and health in Jiangsu Province. It has a National 5A-level Tourist Attraction, a county famous for Chinese painting and calligraphy and a national base of photographic works. It focuses on invigorating the construction and development of tourism service industry, emerging industries and supporting commercial centers and tourism destinations in the Vacation Zone.
Currently, with established developing goal of building up a recreational tourist destination and a high land of emerging service industry, Suzhou Taihu National Tourism Vacation Zone, following the overall requirement of “Eco-cultural Industry Belt around TaihuLake” put forward by the Committee and Government of Wuzhong District, is carried out several development implementations. The main line being that “to carry out a balanced combination of economic development and environmental protection in order to improve both of them”, the Vacation Zone will adhere to “a” core concept that to build up a tourism resort well-known globally and domestically; put efforts on “two” key points of innovative transformation and the improvement of quality and efficiency; keep an eye on the goal of developing “three” areas referring to the leading area of recreational tourism, the demonstration area of culture-tourism integration and the sample area of green development; seize opportunities in “four” ages respectively called the Vacation Age, Ecological Age, Automobile Age and Information Age; place emphasis on “five” industries—cultural creativity, recreational tourism, meetings and exhibitions, sports and health building and rural tourism. All these mentioned above will contribute to the enhancement of core competitiveness of green industry and gradually forge new development advantages for its trinity industry of culture, sports and tourism, in accordance with the requirement that “to transform ecological and cultural resources into impetus to industrial development”. In terms of the tourism service industry, there are several achievements. A solid and powerful improvement of its quality and efficiency has been achieved in the main tourism industry in general. The 8-kilometer golden coastline of Taihu Lake has been improved and formed. A hotel cluster in Yuyangli represented by Renaissance Hotel and Marriott Hotel and a cluster of sports carriers represented by TaihuLake FootballCenter have been put into operation in succession. Major conferences such as the World Language Conference, the Mid-Autumn Evening Gala hosted by CCTV, the Fourth Summit of China and Central and Eastern European Countries and over 1,000 conferences held every year have achieved great success. As for the emerging service industry, its innovation-driven transformation has been accelerated, relying on land for special service use, science and technology industrial parks and office building carriers. Projects of CVTE, Hangzhou Jinjiang Group, Aihua Group, Shenzhen Changyuan Group, Qingke Information, Longwen Technology, Labway and other listed companies have continuously been put into operation.
Ticket Prices of Different Scenic Spots for Foreigners：
Lin House Cave：50 yuan per person
Shigong Hill：50 yuan per person
Mingyue Bay：40 yuan per person（if you want to visit Mingyue Temple, an additional charge of 10 yuan is needed for each person）
Misty Peak：60 yuan per person（an additional charge of 20 yuan as traffic fares is needed for each person）
Xiangxuehai：20 yuan per person in low seasons; 30 yuan per person in high seasons（February and March)
Si’tu Temple: 25 yuan per person
Bronze Guanyin Temple: 15 yuan per person
Yuyang Mountain: 40 yuan per person
Taihu Lake Park: 10 yuan per person (The park is closed on Wednesdays from April to October and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from November to March. It opens to the outside during legal holidays.)
