Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory (Currently Closed) – Watch Silk Making from Silkworms to Products

Silk is one of the major ancient civilizations of China. Enjoying the preferred geographic environment and having the predominant skill of silk making, Suzhou is favored by many people from the globe, other than its gardens, water, etc. Possessing a history of silk making of over 4,700 years, Suzhou was once a prominent place to produce silk products to the whole China and is praised as the “Hometown of Silk”. And till now, it is still working hard to provide the soft, exquisite, elegant, royal, and treasurable silk items to the other countries.

Note: We are a travel agency in China and just introduce the excellent Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory to you on our website and have no business cooperation with them. If you want to buy some silk products of Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory, you could directly go to the silk factory to have various selections or you could check their website at http://www.szfirstsilk.com/ or call at +86-0512-65613733 or email szfirstsilk@163.com to know more details. Staff there can speak some English.

Suzhou Silk Factory Enjoys High Reputation

Suzhou No. 1 Silk Mill (苏州市第一丝厂) is also named Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory or Suzhou Silk Factory in short. This historic state-owned plant was established in 1926 and has become a particularly honored century-old factory in Suzhou. For its traditional skills of making silk and direct exhibition of culture and history of silk in China, Suzhou Silk Factory has been recommended by the BBC Travel. As a result, you could go to this silk factory to see closely the detail steps from silkworm breeding, selecting cocoons, making silk, feel the soft, thin and light silk quilt and fill your eyes with various unprecedented excellent silk exhibits, which will tell why the Chinese silk is so charming that many people are wowed by it.

☛ 1 Day Suzhou City Highlights Tour
☛ 2 Days In-depth Suzhou Culture Discovery Tour

Know about Culture & History of Silk

The thousands-year-long splendid culture and history of silk in Suzhou and China is perfectly presented to you with historical pictures and words. Also, you will admire the very typical old silk clothes in ancient China, like the imperial robe in Qing dynasty, costume of women, ornaments in delicate patterns, etc. What’s more, the vivid scenes of ancient Chinese people breeding silkworms, dyeing raw silks, and many silk manufacturing machines in ancient times are well exhibited in Suzhou Silk Factory.

Interact with the Silkworm Babies & Silk Cocoons

Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory as an aged silk manufacturing plant offers you a great chance to see the real mulberry trees and silkworms. In the workshop, you can see a lot of silkworms eating mulberries leaves on the round bamboo sieves, and even more, you can touch them to feel their softness and see why these so tiny lives can produce so amazing silk. Furthermore, you can pick up a silkworm baby to take a picture with yourself to memorize this fantastic silk visit, which would be so cool!

Besides, silk cocoons are placed in another room, where you can see that some cocoons are going to be chrysalis, some are laying eggs, and some are still immature.

Watch How the Silk Is Made

In another large part in the workshop, you can see many large machines working. You would know that silk cocoons of different shapes, colors, sizes are for diverse usages while selecting cocoons; that cocoon cooking in the hot water is good for the easier dissociation of cocoon silks; and that silk reeling is a vital step to make cocoons into the raw silk. It is surprise and awesome to see the very thin silk become the common threads. You can see how the staff works in each step and touch the cocoons in different sections. Moreover, you can also see the ancient machine weaving fine silk cloths with delicate patterns.

Get Close to the Silk Exhibits

Terrific moment is to watch the four staff making the silk quilt in site. And you are surely welcomed to touch the super soft, light, fleecy, and warm silk quilt. You must doubt about your eyes and touch while getting close to this pure silk quilt. Moreover, there is a sea of fancy silk items exhibiting in Suzhou Silk Factory, like the smooth bedding articles, scarves, pajamas, silk embroideries, qipaos, shirts, etc. Your eyes will undoubtedly be puzzled by these shining, silky and colorful silk exhibits showed here.

Take Your Favorite Silk Items

You will absolutely disappoint to be told that the exhibits are not for selling when you see some very nice things. However, you can buy some superior silk items in Suzhou Silk Factory to complete your silk visit in Suzhou. Since Suzhou Silk Factory provides genuine silk articles, considerate mailing and currency exchanging services, many people home and abroad have taken their silk favorites back home after visiting. With the good silk materials, clearly marked reasonable prices, various patterns and sorts, Suzhou Silk Factory is your best place to do some shopping.

☛ 2 Days Suzhou Classic Garden Tour with Suzhou Silk Factory
☛ 2 Days Best Suzhou & Zhouzhuang Water Village Tour with Suzhou Silk Factory

Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory is located at Nanmen Road (南门路), with the Panmen Scenic Area (盘门景区) on the west and the Grand Canal on the north. You can get there by bus, subway, or taxi.

• From Humble Administrator’s Garden (拙政园) - 8 km, 25 min by car
• From Tiger Hill(虎丘) - 11 km, 35 min by car
• From Master of Nets Garden (网师园) - 3 km, 15 min by car
• From Suzhou Silk Museum (苏州丝绸博物馆) - 7 km, 25 min by car

Travel with China Discovery (Top Recommended):

If you want to get rid of the hustle of public transportation and troublesome navigation, you can book a private Suzhou tour package which covers sightseeing, dining and transfer from us. Our local tour guide and driver will escort you to Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory with speed and convenience, and take care of all the details. You just need to focus on sightseeing. Contact us now >

☛ 2 Days In-depth Suzhou Culture Discovery Tour
☛ 5 Days Shanghai Hangzhou Suzhou Highlights Tour

Generally, a classic Suzhou tour takes about 1~2 days. Visiting Suzhou, you can't miss elegant Suzhou gardens, like Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden, Master of the Nets Garden, etc. You can choose one or two of them for a great garden delight. Other must-be-visited sights in Suzhou City include Suzhou No.1 Silk Factory from which you can watch the process of silk making from silkworms to elegant products, Tiger Hill which is known as the first sight in Suzhou, Suzhou Museum which is designed by I. M. Pei and Suzhou's old canalside roads (like Pingjaing Road and Shantang Street), etc. If you like Jiangnan watertowns, you can visit Tongli, Zhouzhuang or Luzhi to have a wonderful time.

☛ 1 Day Suzhou City Highlights Tour
☛ 1 Day Suzhou Zhouzhuang Tour
☛ 2 Days Best Suzhou & Tongli Water Village Tour

If you want to explore more about Jiangsu Province, you can travel to Nanjing - the old capital city of 6 ancient dynasties, Wuxi - a beautiful lakeshore city, Yangzhou - old culture center of southern China, etc. Check more about Jiangsu Tours>

☛ 5 Days Jiangsu Tour (Suzhou, Wuxi & Nanjing)

In fact, most people travel Suzhou with Shanghai - the best gateway city to Suzhou, and Hangzhou which has long been on a par with Suzhou since ancient times. Generally, it needs 2~3 days enjoying Shanghai's highlights and another 2~3 days appreciating the poetic beauty. Check more about Shanghai Suzhou Hangzhou Tours>

☛ 3 Days Hangzhou & Suzhou Beauty Tour by High Speed Train
☛ 4 Days Shanghai Suzhou Excellent Tour
☛ 5 Days Shanghai Hangzhou Suzhou Highlights Tour

Since 2012, we have helped numerous customers visit Suzhou and surroundings. With our fully-inclusive private tour packages, all of our customers enjoyed their trips to the exquisite gardens, peaceful watertowns, informative silk factory or museum, old Suzhou streets, etc. Some of them kindly shared their precious photos and stories about their Suzhou journey, just get inspired now.

"We were lucky for being able to watch Chinese dancers at the Lingering Garden at the time of visit…" - shared by Nguyen (Check her The Pursuit of Natural Beauty with the Beloved one - 14 Days Beautiful China Exploring Tour>)

"Suzhou was the real treat at the end of the trip! Everything about Suzhou was perfect…" - shared by Elizabeth from Britain (Check her Long-lasting Memory brought by First Trip to China - 16 Days well-Organized and Wonderful First Visit to China>

Besides the wonderful travel stories, many customers who visited Suzhou with China Discovery also send us their first-hand feedbacks about their trip, feel free to read the Suzhou Reviews and learn what they say about their experience. If you want to start your Suzhou tour now, don't hesitate to contact us.