Suzhou Industrial Park and Luzhi

The Pepperdine students were first taken to Suzhou Industrial Park, a modern urban and residential development. This was to show a "master planned city".


Next, the students were taken to the "Venice of the East", Luzhi. Dating back about 2500 years, this has been a prosperous city because of its location on a major trading route. Marco Polo even arrived here in 1276. During the Middle Ages, Luzhi was China's leading silk producer. The students even saw the silkworm cocoons being boiled so as to release the long silk threads. Fortunately Luzhi, and this greater province of Suzhou, was able to make it through the Cultural Revolution without experiencing much damage. These days Suzhou is a popular alternative to Shanghai for foreign companies coming to invest in hi-tech and light industrial manufacturing.