Suzhou City is the ancient capital of Wu Kingdom in the Spring and Autumn Period. It is located on the bank of the Taihu Lake with a vast expanse of rich field and Chinese catalpa and mulberry being all over the place. It has been the home of producing the brocade and embroidery all through the ages. It is the famous ancient city of silk in China. Its silk culture originated at the late period of the New Stone Age. In Dongwu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period, it has already opened a silk route on the sea towards countries of Rome and Japan etc. after the Tang and Song Dynasties, Suzhou has become the major place in producing silk in the country. The skills of producing the brocade, satin, thin silk, print and the embroidery of the Five Dynasties and Song Dynasty unearthed in Suzhou reached consummate level so as to be called treasure. During the Ming and Qing times, Suzhou was one of the famous "Three Weaving Regions in the Southern Part of the Changjiang River". The scale and the level of the folk and the royal weaving mills there were at the first place in the country. At present, the Suzhou silk has combined the traditional process with modern science and technology. It has been on sale through out the five continents and is well known all over the world. As a result, a silk museum at Suzhou-the home of silk in China, which is the long-cherished wish of the silk circle in China and the people of insight both at home and abroad, was created. Since 1981 when Chinese silk expert Qian Xiaoping put forward the suggestion to build the silk museum and in 1984 the museum formally started to be built, it formally opened its door in September 1991 after ten years of hard work. It has become the first professional museum of silk in China. Its establishment aims at developing the brilliant silk culture so as to carry forward the cause and forge ahead into the future.
The museum is located at the temple and pagoda scenic spot in the northern part of Suzhou, occupying 9,410 square meters. The construction style is fresh and elegant with both cultural taste and artistic individuality. On entering the gate, visitors can see a curve-shaped wall with rich natural grace linking up the south and the north. It crosses vertically with the thoroughfare in the east-west direction representing the "Silk Road" with which it constructs the main body of the Silk Museum. On the wall, there are three theme statues of mulberry leaves picking girl, silk washing girl and silk weaving maid who are fair, slim and graceful and welcome the guests from all over the world.
The museum is equipped with the preface hall, ancient times hall, silk worm breeding and mulberry growing room, weaving mil, brocade and embroidery garden, central room, hall of silk road and flower rain, silk stores of Ming and Qing styles, scientific research center and reproducing workshop etc. Among them, there are the exquisite exhibition of the historical relics of silk and the marvelous performance of the traditional operation; farmer's silkworm room and mulberry garden with natural interest and the duplication of the shop and store vista of Suzhou in the Ming and Qing dynasties. You can visit the museum and buy things as well. It is a multifunctional museum combining knowledge, appreciation and business into one body and combining the dynamic state with the static state.
Location: No.661, People's Road, Suzhou City.
Telephone: 0512-7539507, 7537941.
Fax: 0512-753653.
Postcode: 215001.