Suzhou's water town — Ming mansions, silk bridges, and a surprisingly honest sex museum
Tongli is one of the best-preserved of China's ancient water towns in the Yangtze Delta — a 1,000-year-old settlement south of Suzhou where 15 rivers divide the old town into seven islands connected by 49 stone bridges. Unlike Zhouzhuang, which gets more day-trippers, Tongli retains overnight visitors and has a more lived-in feeling — residents still cycle across the bridges and hang laundry on bamboo poles above the canals. The Tuisi Garden (UNESCO World Heritage, 1885) is one of the finest classical Chinese gardens in existence; the bizarrely comprehensive Chinese Museum of Sex Culture occu…
Tongli was established during the Song Dynasty and grew wealthy during the Ming and Qing dynasties as a silk trading town — the carved wooden facades of the merchant mansions reflect this prosperity. The town's isolation from major roads (it sits between lakes and rivers, accessible only by boat or on foot until the 20th century) meant it largely escaped the demolitions of the Cultural Revolution that destroyed so much of China's traditional architecture. The Tuisi Garden was built in 1885 by a dismissed imperial official who named it 'Garden of Withdrawal and Reflection' — an ironic statemen…