Suzhou South Wine Culture Museum

Suzhou South Wine Culture Museum

The Suzhou South Wine Culture Museum is located by the Fengqiao River in the ancient town area of Yanmu, Taoyuan Town. Taoyuan (formerly known as Yanmu) is a wine-producing region in southern Jiangsu with over 2,500 years of winemaking history and cultural heritage. It is one of the primary origins of “Su-style Huangjiu,” one of the four major schools of Chinese yellow wine. The museum is situated next to a thousand-year-old street and features classic Huizhou-style antique architecture covering an area of more than 1,000 square meters, with a built-up area of 500 square meters. The name “Suzhou South Wine Culture Museum” was inscribed by Mr. Qin Han Zhang, a doyen in China’s wine industry. In the front courtyard stands a large imitation bronze wine vessel from which “wine” appears to flow, surrounded by four “wine” characters paved in stones, each uniquely styled.

Backed by rich wine culture, the Suzhou South Wine Culture Museum uses a combination of knowledge-rich, entertaining, and visually engaging artifacts and historical materials to fully showcase the region’s wine-making history, legendary winemakers, wine poetry and paintings, drinking games and couplets, traditional breweries and techniques, wine containers and utensils, wine labels and reputations, as well as local distilleries and their products. The museum has 18 exhibition rooms displaying over 100 wine-related artworks by renowned Chinese calligraphers and painters, along with more than 100 pieces of artful wine vessels from different eras. The exhibition hall also houses a dazzling array of sample liquors from over 20 manufacturers. The reconstructed traditional wine-brewing process room, old-style southern Jiangsu taverns, and wine-tasting rooms all hold certain historical and cultural value in promoting Wu culture and researching wine heritage.

Currently, the museum is managed by dedicated staff and is open to the public free of charge. It serves as a patriotic education base in Wujiang City. In 2010, it was designated as a special tourism site by the Shanghai World Expo Bureau. In the same year, it was named the fourth batch of intangible cultural heritage protection demonstration bases by the Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Press and Publication.

Location: By the Fengqiao River, Tonglu Ancient Town, Taoyuan Town, Wujiang City, Jiangsu Province

Transportation: Take a bus from Wujiang to Taoyuan and get off at Tonglu en route.