Changshu City, referred to as Yu for short, is named "Changshu" because of "fertile soil, no flood and drought at the age of", and is a national historical and cultural city. Changshu is located in the south of the Yangtze River, known as the "blessed land of the south of the Yangtze River", and is one of the birthplaces of Wu culture. Changshu, located in the south of Jiangsu Province, is a county-level city managed by Suzhou. Changshu faces the Yangtze River in the northeast, faces Nantong across the river, borders Taicang in the southeast, Kunshan City and Xiangcheng District of Suzhou City in the south, Jiangyin City and Xishan District of Wuxi City in the west, and Zhangjiagang City in the northwest. Changshu has 8 towns and 6 streets under its jurisdiction, with a total area of 1276.32 square kilometers. It is located in the temperate zone and has a subtropical monsoon marine climate with low and flat terrain and interwoven water networks. According to the data of the seventh national population census, as of 0:00 on November 1, 2020, the permanent resident population of Changshu was 1677050, accounting for 13.16% of Suzhou.

Changshu is an excellent tourist city in China, an international garden city, a national ecological city, and the first batch of international wetland cities in the world. Changshu Shajiabang · Yushan Shanghu Tourist Area is a 5A tourist attraction. In 2018, the national health city (district) will be reconfirmed.

Changshu is at the forefront of China's county-level economy, culture, finance, commerce, exhibition and shipping center cities. Since 2019, it has been rated as one of the top 100 counties and cities for green development in 2019, one of the top 100 districts for new urbanization quality in 2019, one of the top 100 counties for business environment in 2019, and one of the top 10 counties for comprehensive economic competitiveness in 2019. On December 31, 2019, it was selected as a typical county for rural innovation and entrepreneurship in China. In October 2020, it was rated as a national model city (county) for mutual support. In 2020, the Academy of Social Sciences released the "Top 100 County-level Economic Competitiveness in China", ranking fourth. In October 2021, it was selected into the list of "Top 100 Smart Cities in China in 2021". On September 5, 2022, the list of the first batch of innovative counties (cities) in the country was released, and Changshu was among them.

In 2019, Changshu achieved a GDP of 226.982 billion yuan, an increase of 5.3% over the previous year at comparable prices.