Suzhou silk and embroidery have a long history and their current fashions have a covetous buying public; silk underwear is a wonderful and relatively inexpensive luxury for visitors. Other must-buys include sandalwood folding fans for women, calligraphic art, and paintings. Local arts and crafts include jade carvings, wood-cut New Year pictures, round silk fans, and furniture.

Famous local products worth buying as gifts for friends are green tea, velvet blankets, mooncakes, and pine-seed candies. All of these are easily available nearly everywhere, probably even in your hotel's gift shop.

Another specialty to consider is Suzhou hair embroidery. The technique uses human hair worked onto a silk backing. You can also buy kesi, also known as carved silk. The weaving process mixes raw and boiled-off silk. This material used to be reserved for imperial robing; now it can be purchased as painted scrolls or waistbands.