Hidden history in modern China

Suzhou is an enormous city. In expansion-mad modern China, it seems every urban centre is destined for such a fate.

But within this skyscraper-strewn metropolis of more than five million people is a warren of antiquity.

A timeworn precinct, bound on all four sides by waterways and crisscrossed by canals, Suzhou's Old Town is a picturesque vestige of ancient Chinese culture in a city with a 2500-year-old history.

Dozens of weathered stone bridges provide passage across the myriad canals. Tree-lined streets flank rows of gracefully decaying shophouses. The roofs of temples and pagodas tower over low-rise neighbourhoods.

Wandering by the water or exploring the Old Town's back alleys, visitors can marvel at the many ageing structures which have survived the city's metamorphosis.

Chief among them are Suzhou's classical gardens. These meticulously constructed spaces do not thrill visitors with their striking scale and grandeur, but rather captivate them through minute details, labyrinthine layouts and intimate settings.

Many were private gardens attached to residences and were configured for the pleasure of individuals. In this way they are distinct from the sprawling imperial gardens of Beijing and Chengde.

Suzhou's gardens, built by scholars and aristocrats, were areas of serenity and solitude. Many of their design features were intended to recreate natural landscapes on a smaller scale.

Their imitation of nature in often confined areas was an attempt to allay the pining of city residents for the countryside they had left behind.

Now, perhaps more than ever, Suzhou's gardens serve this function. China may be a massive country, boasting large swaths of verdant land which are sparsely populated. But, similar to Australia, the majority of the country's 1.3 billion people reside in cities.

Many leave idyllic environments in China's inland provinces to earn a salary in one of its countless metropolises.

Living in high-rise apartments, walking through crowds to work and then boarding busy buses and trains to get home ensures most Chinese citizens cherish green, quiet spaces which offer a degree of calm.

While this may seem a modern issue, Suzhou's scholars and aristocrats were trying to address it as far back as the fifth century BC.

They designed private gardens with peace in mind, and used them as spaces for study, meetings and contemplation.

While the gardens date back almost to the start of Suzhou's history, their popularity surged between the 14th and 19th centuries during first the Ming and then the Qing dynasties.

At one time there were up to 200 private gardens in Suzhou but many were badly damaged during the Japanese invasion in 1937. Dozens were later restored and now more than 60 remain.

Among those rebuilt were the nine finest in the city - Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden, Net Master's Garden, Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty, Canglang Pavilion, Lion Grove Garden, Garden of Cultivation, Couple's Retreat Garden, and Retreat and Reflection Garden.

These gardens were honoured in 1997 when UNESCO declared them a World Heritage Site. The acknowledgment furthered preservation efforts, which had begun in 1981 when Suzhou was listed by Chinese authorities as a city of historical and cultural heritage protection.

This status helped Suzhou develop into one of the country's most affluent centres. Its booming economy turned it from a modest city into a modern, urban goliath.

Fortunately, amid this rapid development Suzhou's Old Town was largely unharmed. This is evident from the top of the imposing Beisi Pagoda, which towers above the precinct. The 76m-tall structure has more than 1700 years of history.

After walking the hundreds of stairs up to its eighth storey, visitors earn a striking view of the Old Town. There, amid a tangle of canals and alleys, is the most famous site in Suzhou - the Humble Administrator's Garden.

Renowned as one of the finest classical gardens in Asia, it has China's highest possible rating among national tourist attractions.

It is also considered one of the four most auspicious gardens in the country - along with Suzhou's Lingering Garden and the royal gardens of Beijing's Summer Palace and Chengde's Imperial Mountain Resort.

Built 500 years ago by a retired government worker, the Humble Administrator's Garden spent time as a scholars' garden, then as a monastery garden, before changing hands many times.

The sprawling space is split into three sections, each of which has a distinctive layout mimicking Chinese landscapes.

Unlike most of Suzhou's gardens, it is a vast, maze-like area of 52,000sqm which can take half a day to fully appreciate.

A splendid example of the Suzhou garden art of the Qing and Ming dynasties, it is punctuated by ponds, streams, petite rolling hills, miniature forests and carefully considered formations of rocks and plants.

Amid this inspiring mimicry of nature, the patently man-made flourishes also fascinate visitors. Suzhou was long considered one of the premier centres of art and culture in China and this is reflected in the decoration of its gardens.

The crowds which shuffle through these immaculate spaces frequently pause to study plaques, ornate wall hangings, and stone and wood carvings. They absorb not just historical information but also quotations of Chinese philosophy. Along with the impeccable craftsmanship exhibited in the gardens' bridges, gazebos and furniture, these writings offer the modern generation evidence of their ancestors' ingenuity.

The level of individual artistry on show is a nostalgic novelty in a country now dominated by the assembly line. Here, in its historic heart, Suzhou continues to display facets of the ancient culture which so charmed Marco Polo. The famed Italian explorer, after visiting Suzhou in the 13th century, compared the canal-pierced city with his home town of Venice.

Suzhou has moved forward at a far more rapid rate than Venice. But elements of what beguiled Polo remain.

• fact file *

·Suzhou is about 80km west of Shanghai. It is worth several days of exploration, but also can be visited as a day trip from Shanghai. Bullet trains from Shanghai's central station take 30 minutes to reach Suzhou's main station, which is a two-minute walk from the north gate of the Old Town.

·Suzhou's main classical gardens are best seen on weekdays as they can get very crowded on weekends, when Chinese visitors come from Shanghai and other nearby cities.

·The best time to visit Suzhou is between February and May when temperatures are mild and the flowers of its classical gardens are in full bloom.