Suzhou is such an ancient city with 2500 years old that it must have a lot legendary stories hidden in alleys. For instance, many relics are scattered around Dinghuishi/定慧寺 Alley.

Dinghui Temple was built about 1200 years ago in Tang Dynasty, but was ruined several times in different dynasties. Many present buildings were rebuilt in Qing dynasty.



The temple is small and similar with other buddhism temples, but it had a legendary story about Mr. Sushi/苏轼, who was a famous poet in Song dynasty. It was reported the abbot of the temple was a good friend of Sushi, but Sushi was demoted to Huizhou, which belongs to Guangdong province now, very far away from Suzhou. The abbot assigned his subordinate to bring letters of his oldest son in Wuxian to Sushi back and forth. In order to memorate the friendship between two of them, local people built one memorial hall of Sushi, but what's a pity it was destoried afterwards.



The next to the temple is the Double towers, which was built in Song Dynasty. The two towers look like almost same from their appearance, but the western one is at the height of 33.7 meters, which is a little higher than the eastern one. People are still curious about how such two heavy tower spires were conducted to the top over one thousand years ago.

There is one ruined temple behind the Double Towers. We can imagine how magnificent it was in Song Dynasty from some relics, which were inscribed sublime patterns.

Guantaiwei river/官太尉河 is located at the eastern end of Dinghuishi Alley. Guantaiwei had been a high offical name in the imperial period, but its name originated from one school nearby, where local government held the city-level imperial examination. All participants took boats to stop here and wished they had better performance so as to become high officers in the future.

There are some ancient bridges across Guantaiwei river, one of which named the Longevity bridge. It was reported people would get a longer life if they often walked on the bridge, so it usually attracks many people to sit for a while on the bridge. 

Shizi Street situates at the southern end of Guantaiwei river. We can see Wangxing Bridge/望星桥 and it was named after scholars, who were eager to wait for their result enclosed in envelopes afer they took the imperial examination.

St. John's Church was built in 1881 by American missionary, Mr. Panshenwen/潘慎文 and it was the first church in Suzhou, which was designed by Dr. Mul from America. There are three same churches like St. John's Church in the world. The other two are located in St. Louis, America and Kobe, Japan respectively. 

The former Boxi hospital/博习医院 next to the church was the first missionary hospital established by the America Methodist Episcopal Church in China.

Soochow University was at the eastern end of Shizi Street and was built in 1900. The second president of Boxi hospital, David L. Anderson, was elected the first president of Soochow University. What's more, another Soochow University was built in 1951 in Taiwan.

The walking itinerary above needs about two hours, so please take some water with your relaxing and leisurely style.