The Panmen Gate lies at the southwestern corner of the ancient city of Suzhou and can be accessed by No. 7 Bus. It is the most completely preserved part of the ruins of the ancient city of Suzhou and has a long history of more than 2 ， 500 years. Stepping on the gate, you can enjoy the water and gates, the Wumen Gate Bridge and the Auspicious Light Pagoda, which are popularly called “Three Scenes at the Panmen Gate”.

The building of the Panmen Gate began in the first year of the reign of He Lu, the King of Wu. Although it has been renovated and rebuilt many times through the ages, its location has never changed a little. The extant Panmen Gate is the relic of the rebuilding in the eleventh year of the reign of Zhizheng at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and of the renovations during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. With the water and land gates towering side by side, the Panmen Gate is so imposing that it has no parallel in China . The land gate consists of double gates inside and outside with city walls which form a square trapping place with about 20 meters long each side. Once the invading enemies were seduced into the place, they would like the turtles in a jar.

The gate tower we see today was rebuilt in 1986 which stands lofty and firm with flying eaves and corners turned upwards. With all things of sawteeth-shaped crenelations, parapet walls, shooting holes, sluice gateways, capstan stones, courtyards and lookout towers needed for defense in he ancient times, the look of the ancient capital of Wu reappears before us.

The two water gates adjoining the land gates are the only water pass linking up the inside and outside of the southwestern corner of the city. They both are built with granite and two boats can pass side by side through the big and high gate holes. For each gate there is a huge sluice gate to control the water flow. It is easy to imagine the prosperous sights then that the double water and land gates of the Panmen Gate shined on the Great Canal , that the horses and carriages went through the pass with the colored long narrow flags fluttering, and that the boats went through the water gate by turning the rudders and paddling the oars. The relics of the water and land gates are the valuable materials in kind for research on the attack and defense fortifications in ancient China and the Panmen Gate is a castle building suitable for the cities of waters in the south.

The Wumen Gate Bridge is located on the Beijing-Hangzhou Great Canal beside the Panmen Gate. Long as a drooping rainbow and lofty and magnificent, it is the longest stone one-arched bridge in Suzhou . The building of the Wumen Gate Bridge began during the Northern Song Dynasty and the bridge today was rebuilt during the reign of Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty. As the place was the communication center both by land and by water, it was just like the gateway to Wu and was called Wumen Gate Bridge .

The Wumen Gate Bridge is a huge stone arched bridge typical of the land of waters south of the Yangtse River . It is about 6 meters high and 63 meters long. Respectively in the south and north of the bridge, there are 48 steps each of which is a whole rectangular slab of stone with 5 meters long and 0.5 meters wide. The stone sitting railings are set up in both southern and northern sides so that people can not only lean on them and gaze into the distance but also sit on them to have a rest. On the northern abutment, there is a towpath for the boatmen to tow the boats. The bridge opening looks like a half moon and the arch is extremely light and is only 35 centimeters thick so that it is very easy for the boats to pass through under it. The whole Wumen Gate Bridge was built with carefully and precisely sculpted granite from the Golden Hill and the seams were filled with mixture of alum, glutinous rice juice and lime. Thus, it is so rock-firm that it is still as firm as the new one after hundreds of years. Stepping onto the bridge, the gate tower of the Panmen Gate comes clearly into the view, the ancient Auspicious Light Pagoda stands erect quietly, and there is a prosperous sight of boats competitively sailing in the Great Canal . Over the not-long-distance branch of the Great Canal , the Prosperous Bridge looks small and exquisite like a colored soft ribbon floating down onto the green ripples. The over-flying Waterpass Bridge looks succinct and natural. These three bridges stand side by side, adding radiance and beauty to each other.