苏州林园
(sū zhōu lín yuán)

Classic Gardens of Suzhou

Creating harmony between man and nature

The classic gardens in Suzhou are masterpieces of traditional Chinese garden art.

Private gardens began to appear in Suzhou more than 1,500 years ago and boomed in the 18th century. Most of these gardens were built by local nobles, officials and rich businessmen.

Today, more than 50 such gardens still exist and nine have been named World Heritage sites by UNESCO because they “reflect the profound metaphysical importance of natural beauty in Chinese culture in their meticulous design.”

Master gardeners from different dynasties had employed and invented various techniques to artfully mimic the pulchritude of nature and skillfully adapt the limited space within a private residence.

They incorporated water, trees, flowers, stones and rocks with traditional towers, pavilions, halls, bridges and decorative walls to create “Paradise on Earth.”

And their designs all reflect the essential philosophy of creating “harmony between man and nature.”

Of all the classic gardens in Suzhou, the nine World Heritage sites are indisputably the best. They are: Humble Administrator’s Garden, Lingering Garden, Net Mater’s Garden, Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty, Canglang Pavilion, Lion Grove Garden, Garden of Cultivation, Couple’s Garden Retreat, and Retreat & Reflection Garden.

Covering an area of about 52,000 square meters, Humble Administrator’s Garden is the largest and best known of the nine. It was first built by Wang Xian Chen, a Ming Dynesty (1368–1644) of ficial, on the site of a local temple. But later, it had changed hands for many times.

The garden is divided into four parts.

The Central Court is the gem of the garden, with one-third of its space covered by water. The main scenes here include the Distant Fragrance Hall, the Rainbow Bridge, the Lotus Breeze Pavilion and the Loquat Garden.

Simulating scenes along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Humble Administrator’s Garden is best known for its variety of plants.

Built in the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127), Canglang Pavilion is the oldest of Suzhou’s extant classic gardens. It was originally the private garden of the Northern Song poet Su Shunqin.

Sitting on a hill, the garden is incorporated skillfully into the surrounding scenery with the eponymous square pavilion towering above everything in the area.

The ornamental windows on the winding walls in the garden are the best of its kind in the country. Exquisitely designed, each contains a different view of another area of the garden.

Lion Grove Garden is one of the smallest. Built in 1342, it’s known for its oddly shaped rocks and man-made hills.

All the rocks in the garden are from nearby Taihu Lake and were piled up to resemble lions in hundreds of different postures.

Today, the classic gardens have become a major tourist attraction in Suzhou, a city nicknamed “Venice of the East” because of its crisscrossing waterways and beautiful scenery.

In 2013, more than 95 million tourists swarmed to the city and most of them visited at least one of the classic gardens there.

Pictorial dictionary

·　漏窗　(lòu chuāng) decorative openwork window

Louchuanɡ, or leaking window in Chinese, is a traditional design element widely employed in classic Chinese gardens.

The decorative openwork window usually stands about 1.3 meters above the ground and can be found in a great variety of shapes. Apart from the usual square, circle, rectangle, octagon, hexagon and oval shapes, they may also resemble a heart, vase, bottle gourd or various birds and animals.

Such windows are often arranged in a row along a winding wall so when a visitor walks by he may see a different view of another part of the garden.

Mostly made of bricks or tiles, some of these windows display beautiful and elaborate patterns and others feature brick carvings of all kinds of plants, flowers or figurines.

The best examples of ”leaking windows” can be found in Suzhou’s classic gardens.