Changzhou

About Changzhou

Changzhou has been a prosperous Grand Canal city for more than two thousand years, and it wears that long history lightly: a modern Yangtze Delta manufacturing hub on the surface, with temples, canal-side lanes and the moated remains of a Spring and Autumn period city tucked between the towers. It sits between Nanjing and Suzhou on the Shanghai-Nanjing high-speed line, which makes it an easy stop on a Jiangsu rail trip.

The city's signature sight is Tianning Temple, whose modern pagoda soars above Hongmei Park, while Qingguo Lane keeps the grey-tiled courtyard houses of the scholars and merchants who made Changzhou rich. The poet Su Dongpo loved the place and died here in 1101, and a canal-side park still honours him. Families know Changzhou above all for its huge dinosaur theme park in Xinbei District.

The wider municipality reaches south into green hill country around Liyang, where Tianmu Lake is famous for its fish-head soup and the Nanshan Bamboo Sea climbs the ridges near the Zhejiang and Anhui borders. Look out for Changzhou combs, a traditional craft sold across the city.