Suzhou, a city of gardens, is one of the fairer sights in modern "reorganised China". The Joseon-era diarist Choe Bu described it as a city "exceeding every other". Gardens were already being built in those days. It turned out that neither the rise of the Qing, nor the revolt of the Taiping, nor even the chaos of the Century of Humiliation could truly keep Suzhou down.

After the Second World War, Suzhou's proximity both to Japan and to Nanjing rendered a return to relative wealth inevitable. Many of the classical gardens, such as the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lingering Garden, have been restored, and economic output is on the way up. Much of the city consists of streets connected by rivers, creeks, and canals to the economic countryside, a feature which could be leveraged by adroit management.