[2024 Suzhou Stay] Travel Guide for Six Arts Museum Hotel (Updated Sep)
A Visually Striking Dish in Suzhou!
#myhiddengems #eatlikealocal
Squirrel-Shaped Mandarin Fish:
Squirrel-Shaped Mandarin Fish is a dish as visually stunning as it is delicious. The fish is carefully scored, deep-fried, and then presented in a way that resembles a squirrel, with its tail flaring upwards. The crispy fish is then drenched in a sweet and sour sauce, which adds a delightful tang to the dish. Six Arts Museum Hotel in Lili Ancient Town, Suzhou, delivered on this dish with flying colours! The fish’s crispy exterior contrasts perfectly with the tender, flaky meat inside, while the sauce offers a harmonious balance of sweetness and acidity.
Michaela (@uncoveringcities)
Suzhou is home to this museum hotel!
This is the most special hotel we have ever stayed in! It is located in Lili Ancient Town, Suzhou, and it only takes 1h+ to drive from Shanghai.
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The hotel's founder, American collector Mr. Du Weiming, used 5,000 folk collections to decorate every corner of the hotel, including the decorations, tables, cabinets, and furniture in the rooms, which are all very old Chinese traditional objects. The chandelier by the bed is made from a carriage wheel, and the trash can is made from a flower drum stool. The walls are painted in bright contrasting colors, and with traditional Chinese objects, it feels more exotic. This collision of tradition and modern art is very interesting.
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The hotel has a chess and card room, table tennis table, billiard table, gym, etc., and the courtyard is also in Chinese style, and you can feed small fish.
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You can visit the Liuyue Museum next to the hotel for free when you stay in the hotel. You can refer to my next museum note📒
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ShoeFishBallCake
What does it feel like to live inside a museum?
For the sake of a museum, I went to a city specifically. When checking into the hotel, I almost thought I had entered a museum
I have stayed in many characteristic hotels and B&Bs both domestically and abroad, which usually preserve the structure of old houses and retrofit them with modern furniture to create a comfortable hotel that combines the ancient with the modern. What sets this hotel apart is that it crams more than 5,000 antique art pieces into a newly built structure using old building materials, making it more like an extension of a museum and a rebirth of ancient folk art. The craftsmen's polishing and custom installation have revitalized the once-dull relics, which continue to serve practical purposes in the hotel's rooms, gardens, and other public spaces.
From the lobby ceiling and tables and chairs, the art pieces start to catch your eye! Taking the kids around, we played a 'cultural relics matching' game
✅ In the elevator, on the stair walls, and behind the room doors and beds are carved wooden lattice doors. The lattice doors in the bathroom have even been ingeniously transformed into sliding doors‼️
✅ On the 2F corridor are doors from Wenzhou and Fujian, each painted with vivid door god patterns. On the 3F corridor are lacquered panel paintings from Qing Dynasty canopy beds. The kids linger in the corridors every time they pass by.
✅ The chandeliers in the hotel's public areas and rooms are made from wheel axles, named 'carousel lights'
✅ Trash cans are traditional octagonal flower drum stools
✅ The frames of the bathroom mirrors are transformed from the bed rails of ancient beds
✅ The wardrobe door locks, bolts, bathroom toilet paper rolls, and the handrails on the railings are all replicas of museum collections by craftsmen
✅ The wooden storage box in the bathroom was once a jewelry box with a mirror on top
✅ The stone lions at the room entrances and on the stairs are 'Shuanwa lions' from the northern kang
✅ The colorful carvings on the front of the bathroom cabinet drawers come from the wooden board decorations at the front of hardwood canopy beds
✅ The dark wooden floors are 'old foreign pine' from Shanghai's Shikumen. These floor materials were originally used as ballast boards on cargo ships that came to China. Standing on such floors, you are standing on both foreign and Chinese antiques, what a magical feeling!
✅ The children's activity room is full of lacquer paintings on the walls, making the kids feel very cool & chill as they play table soccer, billiards, and table tennis in Hanfu
✅ Stone door frames from Jiangxi used at the entrance to the garden room, rice measuring bowls as flower vases, old sewing machine panels as tabletops, windows from Suzhou gardens, and wooden table and chair sets from Jiangxi mansions in the 3F wooden pavilion, etc., the relics quietly wait for guests to explore and discover!
💡Tips:
🔸 Book the hotel package on Ctrip, and get half-price museum tickets. The 'Yuefu Tower' restaurant at the entrance and the Western dessert will also offer discount coupons. One-stop for dining and lodging!
📍: The hotel is located on the east side of Lilili Ancient Town in Wujiang District, Suzhou. Navigate to 'Liuyue Manor Museum Hotel' to get there. There is a parking lot at the hotel entrance 🅿️.
🔺 The downside is that there are too many relics, and one unconsciously becomes extra careful when walking, touching, and using them Also, the pillows are too high
Come to the comment section and share your experiences of living in a museum over the years