Had your fill of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over Shanghai’s futuristic Sino-splendor? If so, consider a jaunt out to Wuxi, as underrated a city as you’re likely to find in China. Now it’s true you can’t throw a dart at a Chinese map and not hit a city with some cultural claim to fame. However, those places have eked said culture from warlord oppression and brutal clan rivalry, since time out of mind. Only Wuxi boasts a continual history of cultivation rather than subjugation, and peaceful trade rather than compulsory tribute. This is all due to a forgotten hero named Tai Bo, founder of an enlightened legacy, not a sweaty fitness system. More on Tai Bo in a later post. Here are some of the highlights of a place built from what’s best in the Chinese soul, and in humankind.

 Turtlehead Peninsula on Lake Tai

A vast body of placid waters which turn gold at dusk, Lake Tai surrounds a jut of manicured greenery cared for by China’s first industrialists-cum-preservationists. That’s right, the prosperity and plunder of Shanghai was made possible by Wuxi capitalists, who had centuries of non-military mercantilism to their advantage. They invested much of the money back into their hometown, and created Turtlehead Peninsula as a preserve, and a retreat from the vicissitudes of the Age of Industry. The gardens are a tribute to classic Chinese opulence, Summer Palace style. The place is also the focal point of Wuxi’s Mid-Autumn Festival, a perfect time to visit.

Xue Fucheng’s Mansion

In the old China of civil service examinations, your handwriting could make or break you. Xue Fucheng’s chicken scratch nearly did him in. But outstanding rhetoric and guanxi helped Xue become the first Chinese Ambassador, serving several European countries in the late 1800s. He was a pioneer in opening up to the West in order to shed light on China’s domestic problems, and his incredible home boasts a sublime blending of stylistic influences from both hemispheres.

Xihui Park

Sure, you’ve seen plenty of manicured gardens in the Middle Kingdom. But those were all replicas, and the piped in music distracted you from what beauty they had. Xihui park was developed during the Jin Dynasty (265-420 AD), and was esteemed such a triumph of civility guiding nature that all subsequent emperors considered it a mandatory trip, even the uncouth Manchus. Some say there are still hidden coves and copses where one is enveloped in leafy silence, the strains of the Titanic theme blessedly absent.

Xu Xiake’s Home [Museum]

                                        Arguably the world’s first environmentalist, Xu spurned the corrupt Ming Dynasty and their offer of a sinecure to go traipsing about China for thirty years, when most were terrified to wander out of their village, and for good reason. But Xu made it back safe, with immaculate records of minority peoples, remote geological wonders, and accurate maps, greatly enhancing China’s knowledge of its own country. His theories on nature’s inevitable despoliation by encroaching man were visionary, and rather than simply foresage gloom and doom, offered suggestions on how to conserve China’s rivers and forests.

Lingshan Buddha 

The Leshan Buddha is better known, but looks decidedly eroded, and you risk monkey attack going to see him. The Lingshan Buddha, on the other hand, sparkles with bronze, and is twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. That, and the fact that he stands at the end of a fengshui-tastic temple-park complex with nary a monkey to be found, makes him the ideal Buddha destination for the Sino-savvy.

CCTV’s Magic 3 Kingdoms

Now that the Chinese are allowed to get back to their bourgeois imperial routes, they can’t get enough Three Kingdom period drama on the tube. To oblige, CCTV built a massive set in Wuxi, replete with palaces, warships, even a naval base! Visitors can watch TV shoots, or staged demonstrations of feudal horsemanship and gallantry, including a reenactment of the Last Stand of Lu Bu. We’re not sure who that is either, but we’re betting it beats a night at Medieval Times.