Suzhou’s archives cover the areas of economics, politics, culture, education and so on. They record Suzhou’s development process and are witnesses of the city’s history.

There are 12 national comprehensive archives in Suzhou and a total of 3,820 thousands rolls of documents are held in the archives. The earliest records of Suzhou date back to the Ming Dynasty, some 400 years ago.

A number of printed documents – some quite precious – are stored in Suzhou’s archives, such as the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce membership card in the Xuantong years of the Qing Dynasty and private gun permits before liberation. Also, the documents of the Republic of China are important for researchers to study the economic history of that period.

In order to maximize the preservation of historical records, Suzhou has put a great deal of effort into developing their audio and visual archives. Currently, the city stores more than 740 thousands photos and nearly 60% of them have been digitally converted.

The Suzhou Archives Management Department hopes that more people will have the chance to enter the archives and touch the history of this city.