the most beautiful resort in Wu
Tiger Hill is located 3.5 km from Suzhou City, the capital of Jiangsu Province. It is a famous resort in Jiangsu. For over 2,000 years it has been called “the most beautiful resort in Wu (today’s Jiangsu Province)”.
Tiger Hill is a large hillrock covering some 14,100 square meters and is 36 meters in height. Climbing the hill, there are historical sites, some of which can be traced back over 2,500 years to the founding of Suzhou. Tiger Hill Pagoda stands on the hill’s summit and is the Pagoda of the Yunyan Temple. As the oldest pagoda in the vicinity of Suzhou, it has come to be a symbol of the city and has the distinction of being China’s leaning tower.
It is said that the Tea Saint Luyu lived in Tiger Hill for almost 10 years. Here he worked hard to make his tea book and study the relationship between tea and water. He dug a spring out of the rocks in Tiger Hill. The water was very good for tea. He called it the fifth best water. The water even amused the emperor. Since then the Jiangsu people started to drink and cultivate tea.
Another Tang Dynasty scholar Liu Bochu called Tiger Hill Spring “the third best spring”. Today “the third spring” is still engraved on the stone cliff beside the spring.
It is a very popular tourist destination. There are cultural procession and performances and so if you stay long enough you will be able to enjoy them as they are repeated throughout the day. Their music and colorful costumes and the enthusiasm of the performers add color to this “tomb”. Apparently, there is no attempt yet to open the tomb for fear that there is a bobby trap that will result in the collapse of the entire hill. Legend has it that the architect and all the builders of the tomb were given a feast after completion and poisoned so that their secrets of the tomb would never be known.
Address: Jinchang District, Suzhou 215008, China
Opening hours: 7:30am to 6 pm
