Suzhou’s Wujiang District has been included in the list of the third batch of 39 high-speed rail tourist destinations in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region, which was recently released by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, the Shanghai Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, and the Anhui Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.
A total of 100 high-speed rail tourist destinations in the Yangtze River Delta have been selected. In the future, more cross-regional tourism routes and cultural tourism products with local characteristics will be launched to attract more tourists from home and abroad who can travel around by high-speed rail.
There are currently two high-speed railway stations under construction in Wujiang District, namely Suzhou South (Fenhu) Station and Shengze Station of the Shanghai-Suzhou-Huzhou Railway. Suzhou South (Fenhu) Station, the first high-speed railway hub with a design of station-city integration in Suzhou, is a comprehensive transportation hub combining railway traffic, rail transit and waterway passenger transport approved by the State Council in the Demonstration Zone of Green and Integrated Ecological Development of the Yangtze River Delta. Shengze Station, located in the northwest of Shengze Town, is an important railway hub serving nearly one million people in surrounding towns such as Pingwang, Zhenze, and Taoyuan.
Wujiang District boasts rich tourism resources. There are 330 lakes under protection at the provincial level and above. With the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal running through and with 48 kilometers of Taihu Lake shoreline, the water area accounts for 24.4% of the district’s total area. And there are many wetlands, 71.1% of them under protection. As a typical Jiangnan water town and one of the birthplaces of Wu culture, Wujiang is home to a great number of tourist attractions. Tongli, Lili and Zhenze are famous historical and cultural towns. The Tuisi Garden (the Retreat & Reflection Garden) and the ancient towpath of the Grand Canal have been included in the World Cultural Heritage List.
