Suchow

The Chinese have a proverb which says: "Above is heaven; below are Su and Hang“ indicating the high esteem which they place upon the two cities, Suchow and Hangchow. Suchow is over twenty-three hundred years old, and has at present a population variously estimated at from three hundred thousand to half a million, though at one time it is said to have contained over a million.

Like many other gardens the Wang Shih Yuan is situated in a large provincial town, in this case Suchow - a city of white-washed houses on a network of canals which has been celebrated since medieval times for its fine gardens.

She smoothed one hand over the rubbled texture. She had bargained for the fabric herself, on their last trip to Suchow.

The construction of railroads has increased the importance of a number of cities, especially those located at the intersection of two lines. On the Tientsin-Pukow Railway this growth is illustrated by Tsinan, which is the junction for the railroad to Tsingtao, and Suchow, where this line meets the Lung-Hai Railway.

This blow was delivered by Communist Generals Liu Po-cheng and Chen Yi around the town of Suchow, 180 miles north of Nanking in November and December 1948. It was to prove catastrophic. The city of Suchow, which lies at the junction of the east-west Lunghia^([sic – meaning Lunghai]) Railway and the north-south Tientsin—Nanking Railway, is perhaps the most strategic city in modern-day China. Situated at the southern boundaries of the North China Plain, this town and the area adjacent to it form a kind of gateway between the north and the south.

When Manchuria fell to the Chinese Communists and the curtain was rising for the battle of Suchow and Pengpu early in November, 1948, Communist troops in the vicinity of Peiping and Tientsin were also stirring into action.

Our fellows were at base camp no. 70, waiting for help. Their food supplies would not last till the end of June. Again and again, orally and in writing, we had asked for lubricating oil for the convoy. We had still, at camp no. 70, enough petrol to enable three motor-lorries and the small car to cover a stretch of 930 miles—i.e. the distance from Korla to Suchow via Hami and Anhsi.

In 1876 Tso Tsung-t’ang, a Chinese general from Hunan who had already done much to subdue the Taipings and prove himself loyal to the Manchu Imperial Court, was appointed commander in chief of the Sinkiang expedition. His second in command was Liu Ching-t’ang, who proved himself so able that later he became the first governor of Sinkiang. At Suchow in Kansu he accumulated a stock of grain large enough to last his army for two years. When his army reached Komul, Barkul, and Kuchengtze, it was divided into two groups.

Beyond is the final stretch of the Ch'in Great Wall, dividing Kansu from Mongolia and enclosing the cities of Kanchow and Suchow. Twenty-three miles west of Suchow the Great Wall came to an end.