Suzhou Museum

The Suzhou Museum, at 204 Dongbei Street in Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu, is a museum of art and history housed in a landmark building designed by I. M. Pei, opened in 2006. It stands beside the Humble Administrator's Garden and adjoins the site of the former Loyal King's Mansion, a residence of the Taiping leader Li Xiucheng, which is now part of the museum. The new building, one of Pei's last major works, reinterprets Suzhou's vernacular architecture using white plastered walls, grey stone-tile roofs and a geometric play of skylights, and it includes a courtyard garden with a pond, a bamboo grove and a rockery composed of stone slabs against a white wall, described as a painting in stone. The collection contains more than 30,000 items, with emphasis on the arts of the Wu region: paintings and calligraphy by the Wu school masters such as Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming and Tang Yin, Ming and Qing crafts, ceramics, jades, bronzes, and embroidery. Archaeological finds from Suzhou's area, including Neolithic and Zhou-period objects, and a well-known Northern Song stone lion from a local tomb, illustrate the region's long history. Galleries are arranged partly chronologically and partly by material, with a strong emphasis on the relationship between architecture, garden and collection. The Loyal King's Mansion, a rare surviving Taiping government building, preserves painted beams and courtyards from the 1860s and has been restored. Conservation has focused on paintings, textiles and ceramics, with rotating displays for light-sensitive works. Because the building is itself a work of design, visitors often spend as much time in the garden and courtyards as in the galleries. A typical visit lasts two hours, and it pairs naturally with the nearby Humble Administrator's Garden. Entry is free with reservation.