In 825 AD during the Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi, famous Chinese poet, was appointed as a high official to Suzhou. He ordered to build canals and streets at the foot of Tiger Hill and one of the canals was called Shantang River, which was seven kilometers length and linked to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Suzhou section. This river has been very useful for agricultural irrigation and water traffic, making the area became a busy business center. One end of Shantang Street is connecting to the prosperous Changmen Gate business district in downtown Suzhou, the other is to the Tiger Hill, where famous for flower agriculture. It has been a place of converge of merchant and commodities market since the Tang Dynasty.

    It is still a good place to go here in Shantang Street today that a 360-meter-long section alley, where located from Duseng Bridge to Guangji Bridge, reproducing the good old days' scene of Suzhou. The street scenery, shops and architecture are in traditional style.

    The eastern section of Shantang Street is a residential and business area, while the western part is like a tranquil countryside. It was mentioned in the world famous Chinese novel, Dream in the Red Mansion, praised it as "rich and amorous place but with noble air".

    Nowadays, Wu Fang Zhai  from the Qing Dynasty is mastered in making local style sweet cakes and snack specialties. It also produces pork chop noodles and shrimp dumplings.

    Song He Lou Restaurant, also established in the Qing Dynasty, originally a small noodles shop, today it serves rice recipes, braised pork, salted duck noodles and lots of Suzhou style dishes.