Panmen Scenic Area is located in the southwest corner of the ancient city of Suzhou, covering an area of 24.86 hectares, and is a scenic tourist area formed on the basis of the ancient Panmen Gate, the ancient city wall and the surrounding places of interest, and is a national 4A-level scenic area.

　　Panmen Scenic Area was opened to the public on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the National Day on October 1, 1999, and consists of five functional areas: Ruiguang Pagoda Garden, Ming and Qing Dynasty Commercial District, Central Courtyard, Ancient Residential Area and City Wall Park. The scenic area of the Ruiguang Pagoda, the ancient city gate of water and land for the national key cultural relics protection units, Wu Men Bridge for the Jiangsu Province cultural relics protection units. Especially the unique connotation of the ancient Pan Gate, is the symbol of the ancient city of Suzhou and the emblem of the city, but also China's existing more typical and complete water and land alongside the ancient city gate.

　　The central courtyard of the traditional classical garden "one pool and three hills" pattern is a collection of ancient architecture, water town style, mountain pavilions and pavilions, lake and mountain shadows, which is majestic, spacious and atmospheric, making the Panmen Scenic Area not only lose the sense of history of Suzhou's ancient vicissitudes, but also have a bold, bright and modern atmosphere, allowing visitors to feel the Wu culture and history of Suzhou at all times in leisure. It is a place where visitors can always feel the deep heritage of Suzhou's Wu culture and history.

 

　　Panmen as one of the eight gates of the ancient city of Suzhou, was built in 514 BC, because of the carved wood for the coiled dragon placed on top of the city gate to deter the Yue, so called “ Panmen ”. Later, because of the water lingering staggering, renamed “ Panmen ”. The existing city gate for the Yuan Dynasty legacy, the city building for the early summer reconstruction in 1986. Panmen is China's more typical and complete existing water and land side by side with the ancient city gate, by the two water gates, two land gates and urn city, city buildings and both sides of the city wall combination, the land city gate is divided into internal and external two, between the two doors with “ urn city ”, both can hide soldiers, and can surround the enemy; water city gate and land city gate closely adjacent to each other, also divided into internal and external two, between the two doors and the dark road can pass the city building. The water and land gates are equipped with huge gates, which are lifted or closed with a tray car in ancient times, and can control the pedestrians and boats, which is convenient for defending the city.

 

　　The water gate of Panmen is near the south, and the land gate is north, staggered configuration with each other, and the plane is in the shape of curved ruler. The two land gates are facing east, one gate is very small, to the north, the second gate is very large, to the south, the two gates are not in a straight line, if you stand in the first gate, you can not see the second gate, to play the role of concealment. Between the two gates, there is a square urn, in ancient times, the defending general lured the enemy into the urn, put down the front and rear gates at the same time, the enemy became a turtle in a jar and was captured. In the second door also opened a “Pin ” small mouth, this is Wu Zixu in order to prevent the enemy from burning the door with fire attack and design, this is China's earlier fire fighting facilities. In the second door, built with the city tower, in ancient times is for the lookout against the enemy, the ancient name garrison building, Yuan Dynasty, the Italian tourist Marco & middot; Polo had mentioned in his biography to climb the building to look at the scenery, to this trip, and said Suzhou and Italy's Venice as beautiful, & ldquo; Oriental Venice & rdquo; thus named. In the east eaves of the Panmen Tower, hanging a plaque of the larger classical gardens in Jiangsu, four large words “ water and land haunting ” is a famous calligrapher of Suzhou origin, Mr. Gu Tinglong old man reported inscription. The two sides of the pillar pair is the famous Suzhou calligrapher Wang Xino wrote: “ Ancient Wu city queue Chuangyuan strong, the old country dry warfare more ”. Under the west eaves of the city tower, there is a plaque written by the famous Beijing calligrapher Wang Xuechang: “Wu Zhong Lock and Key”. The two sides of the pillar pair is “ water connected to the sail wall mountains divided into purple cui, bridge through the city of Wu listed pearl ”. These plaques couplet, describing the long history and cultural connotations of Wu. 

 

　　The unique connotation of Panmen lies in water, according to historical records: Panmen Water City Gate is one of the birthplaces of Chinese naval forces, during the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu had a huge naval army, and it is recorded that the naval forces of Wu attacking other countries all departed from Panmen. The Water City Gate is adjacent to the south, with two double gates, and a river facing southeast connects through the gate and the canal, serving to ease the flow of water. Between the two water gates there is a rectangular water urn city, in and out of the ship line to the water urn city, two gates down, the ship is shut which can not enter and exit, in ancient times, the soldiers guarding the city from the water urn city cave type stone channel down to check, found problems, immediately can be dealt with on the spot, so its function is equivalent to the role of customs. Water city gate also has the role of flood control and flood discharge, which is equivalent to the role of the present sluice gate, so it can also be regarded as an early water conservancy facility in China. The Water City Gate of Panmen has a high historical status in Suzhou, and the city emblem of Suzhou City is marked by the Water City Gate of Panmen.

 

　　The ancient city of Suzhou is full of water and bridges, and the poet Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty once wrote a poem: “ green waves of east and west, north and south water, red columns of three hundred and ninety bridges ”.

 

 

Wu Men Bridge

Ruiguang Tower