Called Su for short, Suzhou is located in the center of the Yangtze Delta. Its geographic position is 30°47'-32°02'north latitude, 119°55'-121°20' east longitude Adjoining Shanghai City to the east, Wuxi City to the west, Zhejiang Province to the south and facing the Yangtze River to the north in covers an area of 8,488.42 square kilometers, 8.27% of the whole province. The city proper covers 392 square kilometers, among which 74 square kilometers is the newly added district of the city, 14.2 square kilometers is the old city.
With a low flat terrain, the plain in Suzhou occupies 54% of the whole area. Suzhou is 4 meters above the sea level on average, with low-lying land in the southeast, and hills in the southwest. The highest position of the whole city is the main peak of Qionglong Mountain in Wu County, which is about 351.7 meters high. Suzhou has a vast number of ponds and streams. The Grand Canal flows from its north to south, with rivers like Wangyu, Loujiang and Taipu connecting its east and west. Dotting in this chessboard are lakes like Yangcheng, Kuncheng and Dianshan. 90% of the Taihu Lake is within the territory of Suzhou. The city is the famous land of waters and rivers in Jiangnan or the south of Yangtze River with 42.5% of the whole area covered with water. Praised as "the Oriental Venice", the old Suzhou city now boasts 35 kilometers of rivers and 168 bridges.