Shu, City center in Jambyl Region, Kazakhstan.

Shu is a city on the left bank of the Shu River in the Jambyl Region, 265 km northeast of Taraz. Its three-story district administration building, inscribed "ШУ АУДАНДЫҚ ӘКІМДІГІ", faces a paved plaza; to its left stands a white monument with red stars and the dates 1941-1945.

Shu began in 1928 as a station on the Turkestan–Siberia railway, built where no settlement had stood before. It became an urban-type settlement in 1937, a district city in 1960, and a city under regional administration in 1965. On 4 May 1993 the Russian transcription of its name was changed from Chu to Shu, and in 1997 it reverted to district subordination.

The city takes its name from the Shu River; the Kazakh term Shu is said to derive from the Chinese word for water, though scholar Yerkebay Koishybay instead links it to the Turkic ethnonym shu, shue, shui or chue. The Shu bazaar, opened in the 1930s between the station and Koskuduk, hosted not only trade but also games and aitys poetry contests.

Shu sits on the left bank of the Shu River, about 265 km northeast of Taraz and roughly 7 km south of the district centre, Tole bi village. The station is a junction where the Turkestan-Siberian line meets the branch to Moyynty, so trains and minibuses toward Bishkek pass through here. Roads R-29 and R-30 link the city to the A-2 highway.

The city was called Chu until 4 May 1993, when Kazakhstan's Supreme Soviet Presidium changed the Russian transcription to Shu. Kazakh sources link the name to the Shu River, whose Chinese form 水 means "water"; scholar Yerkebay Koishybay instead traced it to the Turkic ethnonym shu, shuye, shui or chuye.