Suzhou Silk Museum

Museum covering four thousand years of silk production, with live silkworms in season

The Suzhou Silk Museum covers the full history of Chinese silk production, from the legendary discovery of the silkworm's cocoon to the mechanised looms of the 20th century. The exhibits include ancient textile fragments, traditional hand looms still in operation, and examples of the major regional weaving styles. In spring and early summer, live silkworms are kept in the museum and visitors can watch the cocoon-spinning process at close range.

The most interesting section covers Su embroidery — the Suzhou tradition of double-sided embroidery, where a piece of silk is worked from both sides simultaneously to produce two different images on one fabric. Examples of finished work show cats and fish and landscapes rendered with a precision that makes them look more like photographs than textile. The museum shop sells authenticated Su embroidery and silk goods at prices significantly better than the tourist-market stalls nearby.

things to do museum sight
A story
Suzhou has produced silk for at least four thousand years, and for most of that time it was the finest silk in the world — a claim supported by the fact that emperors monopolised Suzhou production for court use. The city's early prosperity, which funded its gardens, was built almost entirely on the silk trade, which ran through the canal network connecting Suzhou to the Grand Canal and from there to the rest of China and eventually to the Silk Road.