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

蘇州，這是一座以其園林著稱的歷史名城。然而，近些年來，蘇州的名氣主要來自其吸引了大量外資，而不是因為其歷史名園和生活方式。但時至今日，蘇州的經濟繁榮讓其獨一無二的文化遺產獲得更好傳承，人民生活更加精致。

蘇州中等收入群體的增加，對其經濟發展功不可沒。今年5月中旬，習近平主席強調，中國應不斷擴大中等收入群體。正是在這些方面，蘇州這座以花園著稱的歷史名城，一直在進行著具有示范意義的嘗試。

中國日報推出的《GO蘇州》特輯，便是對這些嘗試的集中報道。

-《中國日報》副總編輯 孫尚武

(China Daily European Weekly 06/24/2016 page2)