[Su-chau is situated 80 miles west of Shang-hai, 12 miles east of the Great Lake, and 40 miles south of the Kiang, in the plain between this river and Hang-chau Bay.  It was the capital of the old kingdom of Wu which was independent from the 12th to the 4th centuries (B.C.) inclusive; it was founded by Wu Tzu-su, prime minister of King Hoh Lue (514-496 B.C.), who removed the capital of Wu from Mei-li (near the modern Ch’ang-chau) to the new site now occupied by the city of Su-chau.  “Suchau is built in the form of a rectangle, and is about three and a half miles from North to South, by two and a half in breadth, the wall being twelve or thirteen miles in length.  There are six gates.” (Rev. H.C.  Du Bose, Chin.  Rec., xix. p. 205.) It has greatly recovered since the T’ai-P’ing rebellion, and its recapture by General (then Major) Gordon on the 27th November 1863; Su-chau has been declared open to foreign trade on the 26th September 1896, under the provisions of the Japanese Treaty of 1895.

“The great trade of Soochow is silk.  In the silk stores are found about 100 varieties of satin, and 200 kinds of silks and gauzes....  The weavers are divided into two guilds, the Nankin and Suchau, and have together about 7000 looms.  Thousands of men and women are engaged in reeling the thread.” (Rev. H.C.  Du Bose, Chin.  Rec., xix. pp. 275-276.)—­H.C.]

[Illustration:  CITY OF SUCHAU Reduced to 1/10 the scale from a Rubbing of a PLAN incised on MARBLE AD MCCXLVII, & preserved in the GREAT TEMPLE of CONFUCIUS at SUCHAU]

NOTE 2.—­I believe we must not bring Marco to book for the literal accuracy of his statements as to the bridges; but all travellers have noticed the number and elegance of the bridges of cut stone in this part of China; see, for instance, Van Braam, II. 107, 119-120, 124, 126; and Deguignes I. 47, who gives a particular account of the arches.  These are said to be often 50 or 60 feet in span.

["Within the city there are, generally speaking, six canals from North to South, and six canals from East to West, intersecting one another at from a quarter to half a mile.  There are a hundred and fifty or two hundred bridges at intervals of two or three hundred yards; some of these with arches, others with stone slabs thrown across, many of which are twenty feet in length.  The canals are from ten to fifteen feet wide and faced with stone.” (Rev. H.C.  Du Bose, Chin.  Rec., xix., 1888, p. 207).—­H.C.]

[Illustration:  South-West Gate and Water-Gate of Su-chau; facsimile on half the scale from a mediaeval Map, incised on Marble, A.D. 1247.]