苏州博物馆

Suzhou Museum stands at 204 Dongbei Street, Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu. Founded on New Year's Day 1960, it occupies two parts of the site: the historic Mansion of Prince Zhong of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the new building designed by I. M. Pei, which opened on 6 October 2006. The new museum covers about 10,700 square metres of land with more than 19,000 square metres of floor area. Pei's design follows a principle of being modern yet Suzhou-like, combining geometric volumes and white walls with grey tiles, a rockery of sliced stones, water courts and a wisteria transplanted from the old garden, and it has become a cultural landmark in the north of the old city. The collection holds 24,729 objects and sets, 9,647 of them graded as valuable and 222 as first-grade national treasures, chiefly archaeological finds from Suzhou, Ming and Qing literati painting and calligraphy, and Jiangnan folk crafts; the permanent displays are organised as Treasures of Wu, Pagoda Treasures, Elegance of Wu and Wu School Painting. Suzhou Museum became one of the first national first-level museums in 2008 and has been free to the public since then, and it was rated “excellent” in the 2014-2016 national evaluation. The main site opens Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00-17:00 with last entry at 16:00, closed Mondays, by timed real-name reservation; telephone 0512-67575666. The West Branch at 399 Changjiang Road opened in 2021. The new building adjoins the Mansion of Prince Zhong, the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lion Grove, forming a concentrated heritage quarter in the north-east of the old city.