Suzhou is nestled in a subtropical monsoon marine climate zone, mild and moist, with distinctive four seasons and abundant rainfall. Known as a land of fish and rice, famous for its silk for long, the city has earned the fame of "the paradise on earth", due to all these attributes.
The city has low and flat landforms with dense waterway networks, fertile farmland and rich produces. Suzhou has been farming rice, wheat, rapeseeds and fruits and producing water crops including lotus root, Gorgon fruit and arrowhead; the special local produces contain duck blood-black glutinous rice, white garlic, citrus, loquat, Chinese chestnut, plum, osmanthus flowers, Biluochun tea, etc.. Dao fish from the Yangtze River, hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake, silver fish, white fish, white shrimps from Taihu Lake are wellknown aquatic products.
