From THE Editor

This is China Daily's special report about Suzhou, a city in the Yangtze River Delta.

Suzhou is traditionally known as the Garden City. In recent history, when the city became the envy of other Chinese cities for the amount of foreign capital it attracted, the gardens and the lifestyle surrounding them seemed to have fallen out of fashion.

Today, theprosperouseconomy has only allowed the Suzhou people to devote more resources to the conservation of their unique cultural heritage, and development of a cultured modern lifestyle.

The rise of its new middle class is feeding the city's economic growth.In mid-May, Chinese President XiJinpingstressed the need to expand the middle-income groups. In this matter, Suzhou-the historical garden city-is showing us how it is transforming into a garden forthe nation's new middle class and its colorful lifestyles.

-SunShangwu, deputy editor-in-chief, China Daily

(China Daily 06/24/2016 page26)