Everyone knows that Suzhou Park is amazing, but you may not know that Suzhou is quietly developing westward! That’s right, it’s the western part of Suzhou where we remember Taihu Lake, landscapes, and embroidery. Now we want to build a brand new urban center.

This is not something I'm talking nonsense, it is a plan personally approved by the Jiangsu Provincial Government! Suzhou High-tech Zone should be built into a "national first-class high-tech park, main base for industrial science and technology innovation, an ecological humanistic livable city, and a new center for Suzhou development."

The wisdom of double-sided embroidery, a new urban pattern that blends ancient and modern times

Suzhou people understand the wisdom of "double-sided embroidery" best - one side is traditional and the other side is modern. Suzhou’s urban development is also playing this superb skill now!

The modern urban style of Jinji Lake with a park on the east and the traditional charm of an ancient city on the west. Now we are going to develop a new center west. This is not simply the rise and fall of one another, but the joint reshaping of the urban pattern of Suzhou.

The park plans to invest 330.6 billion yuan, implement 443 key projects, and comprehensively improve the level of urban construction. The west is not to be outdone, and has rich ecological resources and cultural heritage.

This "dual-core" development model is really smart, just like walking on two legs, which is much more stable than jumping on one leg!

Why is the West? Hidden treasures are waiting to be discovered

You may ask: Why choose the West? The answer is simple: There is material in the west! It has rich ecological resources and cultural heritage.

To the west, there are Taihu Lake landscapes, profound Wu culture, wetland water towns, lake flowers and fruits, folk arts such as Su embroidery, Su paintings, and Su carvings.

More importantly, the Western Eco-City has started construction in 2009, with a total planned area of ​​about 42 square kilometers. It is to be built into a landscape ecological city integrating tourism and leisure, business research and development, cultural creativity and healthy living.

The people have planned it long ago - no factories are built within one kilometer along the Taihu Lake shoreline, and all breeding and dairy farms have moved out of the Binhu area. An investment of 1 billion yuan was made to implement the Taihu silt and soil extraction project, and a 25-kilometer Taihu embankment and a 1 million square meters of green landscape were built.

The major transportation artery opens the Ren and Du meridians that develop westward

As the saying goes, "If you want to be rich, build roads first." The transportation construction in western Suzhou has invested a lot!

In 2008, the Taihu Avenue viaduct, with a total length of 8 kilometers, started construction, and the driving distance from the city to the edge of Taihu Lake was shortened to only 15 minutes. Now Metro Line 3 has closely connected the new district, Gusu District, Wuzhong and the park.

In the future, we will also have to fully link and jointly build a "one network" of regional rails, and even promote the Shanghai Hongqiao comprehensive transportation hub of the Sudian-Shanghai intercity linear chain. This means it will be more convenient to go to Shanghai from the west in the future!

Technological innovation, the core engine of western development

Although the western region has a beautiful ecology, it is not only good-looking, but also strong! The core positioning of the West is technological innovation.

There are emerging industries gathering here, attracting a lot of investment. The first academician and expert service center in the province is established here to help the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements.

More importantly, the Suzhou Campus of Nanjing University and its affiliated middle schools, primary schools, kindergartens, etc. are all settled here. This means that the west not only has industries, but also has talents to cultivate talents, and has a lot of potential for future development.

Ecology and technology dance together, a unique path for western development

The western development takes a unique path of dancing ecology and technology, and does not strive to build factories like other places.

As early as 2002, Suzhou High-tech Zone proposed the six-character policy of "planning, sorting, and landscaping" to protect the ecological environment of Taihu Lake. In 2012, more than 20 million yuan was invested to launch the "First Phase of Comprehensive Remediation of Rural Environment and Agricultural Non-Point Pollution".

Cao Jun, head of the Western Ecological City Management Committee, once said: "The Western Ecological City is close to Taihu Lake. Its biggest advantage is ecology, its biggest potential is ecology, its greatest wealth is ecology, and its greatest potential is ecology."

Challenges and opportunities, realistic considerations for western development

Of course, the development of the western region also faces some challenges. For example, infrastructure construction needs to be improved, and local residents’ awareness of ecological protection also needs to be strengthened.

The construction process of eco-city construction was once relatively slow, and there was a lack of a sound and parallel and effective policy management method in supervision and implementation. But now it seems that these problems are being gradually resolved.

With the "Enlargement to the West and Expansion to the North" strategy and the advancement of rail transit construction, the Western Eco-City is ushering in new development opportunities. Urban-rural integrated development is also conducive to the accelerated formation of an urban-rural integrated pattern of ecological cities.

Ten years ago, the Jinji Lake in the park was the well-deserved protagonist of the era in Suzhou; ten years later, the city developed westward.

The story of the Western Eco-City has just begun - it is no longer just the "back garden" of Suzhou, but is growing into a "new center" that complements the eastern park.

The future Suzhou will be like a beautiful double-sided embroidery: on one side is the modern skyscraper in the park, and on the other side is the green mountains and clear waters of western ecological technology, jointly interpreting the story of Suzhou that perfectly integrates tradition and modernity.