As a major tourist city, Suzhou is easily accessible by road or rail and also has some good boat services operating out of the city port.

By plane:

Suzhou Guangfu Airport, is a small airport. It has only a flight to Foshan every Tuesday. Most travelers fly into Shanghai and then take a bus (one hour and forty minutes, RMB50) from the Shanghai Airport or a train to Suzhou (about an hour).

By train:

Suzhou is an important city on the Beijing-Shanghai Railway line, and everyday, more than 20 trains stop at the Suzhou railway station which is on the northern side of the city. A train to Shanghai takes about one hour and costs between RMB20-50 depending on the type of ticket. There are also regular trains to Nanjing and Wuxi from here (2 hours).

By boat:

The city of Suzhou is along the Grand Canal and therefore accessible by boat from various cities along the canal including Beijing (Tongxian County), Shanghai, Zhenjiang (in Jiangsu Province) and Hangzhou. Although the boats traveling along the Grand Canal are not always comfortable this can be a nice way to leave the city and to arrive in Shanghai.

By bus:

Buses to Nanjing, Shanghai and other major cities are plentiful, but buses may cost slightly more than a comparable train ride for about the same amount of time. The buses to Nanjing pass through Wuxi, Changzhou and Zhenjiang and then on to Nanjing along the Shanghai-Nanjing Highway. Buses to Nanjing cost RMB80 and take about three hours. There are two long distance bus stations in Suzhou, at each end of Renmin Lu.

City transport:

Suzhou is small enough to walk around. A nice way to see the sites is to hire a bike (ask in your hotel). There are numerous buses and taxis also operating in the city.