Suzhou is a well-known water town in the south of the Yangtze River, with rivers, lakes and tidal flats taking up 34.6% of its total area. Suzhou is nestled in a subtropical monsoon marine climate zone, mild and moist, with distinctive four seasons and abundant rainfall. Known as a land of fish and rice, famous for its silk for long, the city has earned the fame of "the paradise on earth", due to all these attributes.
Suzhou has been farming rice, wheat, rapeseeds, and fruits and producing water crops including lotus root, Gorgon fruit and wild rice stem; the special local produces contain duck blood-black glutinous rice, white garlic, citrus, loquat, Chinese chestnut, plum, osmanthus flowers, Biluochun tea, etc. Dao fish from the Yangtze River, hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake, silver fish, white fish, white shrimps from Taihu Lake are well-known aquatic products.
