Suzhou Museum	Shzhou Folk Culture Museum	Drama Museum
Han Shan Temple	West Garden Temple	Suzhou Stelae Museum

Suzhou Museum is situated near the Humble Administrator's Garden. The museum was once the residence of a leader in the Taiping Uprising, Li Xiucheng. On exhibit are some interesting old maps of Suzhou and the Grand Canal as well as examples of silk and embroidery; check out the exquisite Qing silk sample. Qing Dynasty steles forbidding workers’ strikes in addition to relics unearthed from various sites around Suzhou (porcelain, funerary objects, and bronze swords) are also on display.

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Suzhou Folk Culture Museum (Suzhou Mingsu Bowuguan), though it is a small museum, is worth a visit for an insight into the local lifestyle and customs unique to the people in this region. There are several sections highlighting different themes. Find out about marriage customs in the section on marriage; you will see a red sedan, a lavishly decorated altar, and models dressed up in wedding garb. You may also view models of local dishes and copy the ancient recipes for preparing food.

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Drama Museum. Suzhou has been celebrating the dramatic arts for more than 1,000 years, and the Drama Museum best exemplifies the culture of the Chinese. It is housed in a restored theater. The stage is set on the upper floor of an ornate pavilion, facing a large courtyard. The courtyard is where the audience used to sit at stone tables or stand and view the performances.

Today, performances are rarely presented, but visitors can see pictures, models of sets, costumes, and props in the exhibition hall. Of interest is a traveling theater. It consists of a large cupboard, elaborately decorated with lanterns and tassels. There is room for seven musicians, props, and costumes. When it was time to move, the stall was transformed into a box for all the equipment and carried on poles by the troupe.

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Han Shan Temple, built in 502-519 A.D., enjoys a high reputation both at home and abroad, due to the Tang poem, "Night Anchorage at Maple Bridge." Every year since 1979, on the last day of December, CITS Suzhou Branch has organized the activity of "Listening to the Sounding of the Bell in Han Shan Temple on the New Year's Eve," which has proved to be a great success, especially with tourists from Japan, the United States, and Great Britain.

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West Garden Temple (500 Buddha Temple), also named the Monastery of Disciplines, was built during the Ming Dynasty and is known for its 500 gilded arhats. The arhats are life size and present different facial expressions and postures. Also, huge 300-year-old turtles can be found in the Life Liberation Pond of its west garden.

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Suzhou Stelae Museum has on display over 2,000 pieces of stelae, among which are three Song tablets: namely, a map of Suzhou, a constellation chart, and a map of China. These are rare treasures under national protection.

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