CLASSIC SUZHOU GARDENS

Classical Chinese garden design, which seeks to recreate natural landscapes in miniature, is nowhere better illustrated than in the nine gardens in the historic city of Suzhou. They are generally acknowledged to be masterpieces of the genre. Dating from the 11th-19th century, the gardens reflect the profound metaphysical importance of natural beauty in Chinese culture in their meticulous design.This garden is dominated by elaborate rock formations of all shapes and sizes, which give this garden quite a different appearance to the other gardens.

The classical gardens of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China date back to the 6th century BCE when the city was founded as the capital of the Wu Kingdom. Inspired by these royal hunting gardens built by the King of the State of Wu, private gardens began emerging around the 4th century and finally reached the climax in the 18th century. Today, more than 50 of these gardens are still in existence, nine of which, namely the Humble Administrator’s Garden, Lingering Garden, Net Master’s Garden, the Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty, the Canglang Pavilion, the Lion Grove Garden, the Garden of Cultivation, the Couple’s Garden Retreat, and the Retreat & Reflection Garden, are regarded as the finest embodiments of Chinese “Mountain and Water” gardens. The earliest of these, the Canglang Pavilionwas built in the early 11th century on the site of an earlier, destroyed garden. Conceived and built under the influence of the unconstrained poetic freehand style originally seen in traditional Chinese landscape paintings, they are noted for their profound merging of exquisite craftsmanship, artistic elegance and rich cultural implications. These gardens lend insight into how ancient Chinese intellectuals harmonized conceptions of aestheticism .

This garden is famous for its striking architecture. It has the most buildings among Suzhou's gardens, perfectly combined corridors, artificial hills, rocks, and water features.

The garden is divided into four distinctly themed areas: artificial hills in the west, pastoral scenery in the north, halls and pavilion structures in the east, and hills and water features at the center.

This garden consists of a residential quarter and the garden proper. At each turn, there is an elegant picture of pavilions, rocks, trees, and water. It reflects the wisdom of the ancient landscape architectsr.