City: Suzhou
Category: nature
Suzhou is one of the oldest cities in China, located in its Jiangsu province. Built on water, this city is often called the Venice of the East, the only difference being that its history exceeds two and a half millennia. During the reign of the Ming and Qing dynasties, namely from the 14th to the 20th centuries, over two hundred beautiful gardens were built here, most of which are now under UNESCO protection.
The oldest of them is rightfully considered the Blue Waves Pavilion, which is a pile of stones, artificial hills and green bamboo thickets. In the center of the garden is the Bright Path Hall, decorated with many images of famous historical figures, whose faces are carved directly from wood.
The garden of the Lion Cave, built at the turn of the 13th - 14th centuries during the reign of the Yuan dynasty, is also noteworthy. The reason for such a poetic name was the local piles of stones, shaped like lions.
If we talk about size, the most grandiose here is the Garden of the Humble Administrator, which, among other things, is recognized as an outstanding example of a personal classical garden in China. The predominant part of its territory is reserved for man-made reservoirs, around which pavilions, elegant in their simplicity, are built.
The Garden of the Modest Official (Chinese name - Zhuozhenyuan) is one of the best examples of private garden and park architecture, a great place for relaxation and long walks.
The garden was created in the early 16th century by former state censor Wang Xianchen. Its name, of course, is ironic: the naked eye can see that the arrangement of the garden required huge financial investments, and there is no trace of the owner’s modesty here. By the way, according to legend, Wang Xiancheng himself was dismissed from government service for taking bribes.
It took the “modest” official more than 20 years to create this splendor. All the sadder is the fact that in 1631 his descendant lost the garden at cards in one night. After this, the owners of the garden changed regularly, and none of them particularly cared about its preservation. Therefore, only the central part of the once lush and rich garden has survived to this day. However, there is something to see there too. The garden has 48 different buildings, 40 steles, about 20 ancient valuable trees and more than 700 dwarf trees.
Garden of solitude and meditation in Suzhou
The Solitude Garden in Suzhou is called one of the masterpieces of Chinese garden architecture. It is, however, not too large (only 0.5 hectares) and does not belong to the imperial gardens: it was founded by an official who left public service. In 1593, Mr. Xu Taishi founded the garden, two hundred years later it passed into the hands of Liu Shu, and in 1873 the garden was expanded by its new owner Shen Han. Later the garden became the property of the state.
The main element of the garden is water. Everything is based on small canals and ponds, arranged in abundance in the garden. The center of the old part of the garden is the Tuanchi pond, surrounded by artificial rocks and the buildings of the Haibi Villa.
It is believed that the garden is ideal for reading books, wushu gymnastics, drawing, calligraphy and mental relaxation.
Network Master's Garden
In 1140, a retired official decided to plant a garden - and since he called himself a fisherman, the garden received the appropriate name: the Garden of the Master of the Net. Subsequently, already in the 18th century, another retired official took a fancy to the neglected park and decided to restore it in order to enjoy outdoor recreation.
The park, small by Chinese standards (a little more than 5 thousand square meters), is particularly elegant. The park harmoniously combines art, nature and architecture. It consists of 3 parts: the eastern (residential) part, the lake, and the “garden within a garden” in the western part. In the residential area, the most interesting structure is a bamboo hut, which is decorated with incredibly beautiful lanterns. Most of the park is occupied by the garden itself with a wonderful pond.
Tuisa's garden
The classical landscape gardens of Suzhou are poetry that decorates everyday life.
Located south of the Yangtze, the city of Suzhou in eastern China's Jiangsu province is famous for its unique landscape gardens, hidden in quiet alleys behind modest, inconspicuous gates.
Network Master's Garden
The territory of the Fishing Net Master's Garden covers 5,400 square meters. meters and consists of two parts: in the east there is a house, and in the west there is a garden. Half of the garden is hidden by a wall, and the gates are richly decorated with ornaments - this is a traditional symbol of the high social status of the owner of the estate and his position in society.
The appearance of this beautiful and amazing place emphasizes the unique skill of Chinese designers, who are able to combine nature, architecture and art, creating real masterpieces. Construction of the Netmaster's Garden began about 800 years ago, and gradually its appearance changed. But despite this, the “spirit” and character of the garden, as well as its name, continued to remain unchanged.
In the direction from south to north, there are four buildings: a state hall, a sedan chair hall, a grand hall, a two-story tower, separated by gardens. They are made in the same style, and the interior decoration is striking in its richness. Each room has access to the garden - this is a characteristic feature of almost all the private gardens in Suzhou, for which the city is so famous. During the period when the city reached its greatest prosperity, 280 gardens appeared here, 69 of which have survived to this day in excellent condition.
The garden looks very discreet from the street and does not stand out from the rest of the buildings. But hidden inside is the amazing beauty of nature and true harmony of taste.
Garden "Garden of the Modest Official"
The most beautiful garden in Suzhou is the Garden of the Humble Official. In the 16th century, the official An Xianshen, accused of corruption and removed from service, began the construction of this park. And the name for the garden was borrowed by An Xianshen from a classical Chinese work in which the main character - a “modest official” - devoted himself to gardening. On an area of more than 4 hectares, the official performed a real miracle of landscape design.
Most of the territory is occupied by a lake; there are many islands with bridges crossing the ponds in a zigzag, open gazebos, pavilions and natural sculptures made of stones. In total, there are about 50 buildings of various types in the garden. The artfully laid out pebble paths resemble a mosaic.
The garden consists of three parts: Eastern, Central and Western, each of which has its own architectural and natural features. In the Eastern part, the main buildings are the Hall of Orchids and Snow and the Pavilion of Divine Spring. The main building of the Central part is the Hall of Distant Fragrance, located next to the pond with water lilies. The Northern Pagoda is also located here. The most interesting structure can be seen in the Western part of the garden: a pavilion divided into north and south with Halls of 36 Pairs of Mandarin Ducks and a Hall of 18 Camellias. In summer you can watch ducks swimming in the pond, and in winter you can admire artificial camellias.
Attractions of Suzhou
One of the most wonderful Asian countries on our planet is China. Suzhou is a city that is one of the most famous in the Middle Kingdom. It is called the Chinese Venice because of its enchanting beauty. By Chinese standards, this is a very small settlement, located one hundred kilometers from Shanghai. It was founded a long time ago, back in 514 BC. Throughout its existence, Suzhou has repeatedly been the capital of ancient as well as medieval states during periods of fragmentation of the state. The comfortable location, healthy climate and charming surroundings of the metropolis attracted many wealthy people, so here you can see a huge number of beautiful old houses.
China is famous for many interesting features. Suzhou is one of them. The uniqueness of this city is that it is located in the place where the Great Canal of China, which was dug in ancient times, intersects with the Yangtze River.
The city was built at the intersection of giant waterways and is penetrated by a countless network of different canals. Many prominent personalities have visited China at one time or another. In the 12th century, Suzhou was visited by the Venetian Marco Polo, who dubbed the settlement the Chinese Venice. This nickname has survived to this day.
Numerous parks and gardens, as well as ancient architectural buildings, filled Suzhou. Some of the oldest buildings are closed, others are open only to tourists, but each of the houses is a real masterpiece of landscape architecture. And each of the parks has a poetic name, for example, Tiger Hill and the Garden of Harmony, the Villa of the Mountain and the Garden of the Master of the Network (meaning the Internet) and many others. Each of the names contains a beautiful and amazing legend, which the guides will tell visitors with the greatest joy.
Ancient city street
China is famous for many attractions. Suzhou is a landmark of the Celestial Empire, which has many of its famous objects. One of them is Shantang Ancient Street. It is located in the northwestern part of the village. It starts near Changmen City Gate and continues to Huqiu Hill. The total length of the street is 3.6 thousand meters. Shantan was established during the period when the country was ruled and thus, the history of the attraction goes back over 1100 years.
There is an opinion that the popular poet Bo Juyi, who lived during the reign of the above-mentioned dynasty, at one time served as mayor of the city. At this time, he decided to put the river, which was also called Shantan, in order, and along with it, to put its embankment street in order. All this was supposed to facilitate convenient travel for city residents beyond its borders, to Huqiu. Since then, Shantan Street was paved, which performed tourist and communication functions.
Garden capital of the Celestial Empire
The Gardens of Suzhou (China) are the most famous landmark of the city and the calling card of the country. The gardens of imperial officials of various dynasties have been known to people for many centuries. They have been an image of design art for many centuries. They decorated the locality for hundreds of years, were a source of inspiration for artists and poets, and served as a model for copying by ordinary people and emperors.
Everything in these gardens is done according to the laws of Feng Shui. These rules require the presence of large stones that represent mountains, pavilions (gazebos), water and plants. This was a strict requirement that was strictly observed. All reservoirs are of man-made origin. Each pond contains goldfish, which, according to Chinese beliefs, bring good luck.
Every garden has a corner of “wild” nature. A touch of romance is added to the landscape by the bridges that are scattered everywhere. The gardens are also paved with zigzag paths and galleries.
The gardens had their own history: they were transferred to the possession of different nobles, modified, remodeled, united, faded, united and blossomed again. Today, some of the sites are open-air museums showcasing ancient Chinese gardening art.
Cold Mountain Temple
The city of Suzhou in China is also famous for the fact that it has many different Buddhist shrines. One of the oldest is the Cold Mountain Temple or Hanshan Temple. The history of this church exceeds 1400 years. Construction work on the construction of this monastery began when the Northern and Southern dynasties ruled. This was the period when the city was part of the Liang Kingdom.
During the reign of the Tang family, the abbots of the temple were two Buddhist monks Shide and Hanshan. At that time the church did not yet have any name, and it was necessary to come up with one. But the guardian monks were so modest that they could not dare to name the future landmark in their honor. But one day the Buddhists met an old woman who suggested naming the monastery in favor of the one who is the smartest. The victory went to Hanshan, who became the full-fledged rector of the facility, and his name was immortalized in the name of the church.
Tiger Mountain
The sights of Suzhou (China) are extremely popular among tourists. Tiger Mountain, which reaches a height of 36 meters, is particularly popular. It rises above the gate called Lumen, located in one of the oldest areas of the city. Here the king of the state, Wu Fu Chai, once buried his own father (Helu) along with three thousand sabers. The wondrous name of the mountain is explained by one wonderful legend: on the third day after Helu was buried, a white tiger came to his grave. The animal began to guard this place. This is where such an intriguing name came from.
The only surviving gate
Once upon a time, Suzhou (China), the photo of which we see in the article, was decorated with 16 gates. Eight of them were terrestrial and eight were aquatic. But time has destroyed almost all of these objects. Only the Panmen Twisted Gate could “survive” to our present day.
A long time ago they were part of the ancient city wall, built in 514 BC. But they were destroyed by war, and only in the 14th century was the landmark completely reconstructed and brought back to life. Already in our era, the Twisted Gate was also repaired in order to attract even more travelers.
It is located in the northeastern part of the Old City, on Dongbei Street. I get to the North Temple Pagoda (buses Y4, 1, 8, 102), reach the pagoda and turn right - a pedestrian zone with a lot of souvenir stalls begins there almost immediately.
The Chinese classical garden is a small area with pavilions, gazebos, slides, bridges, ponds, trees, flowers and limestone rocks and stones, whose bizarre appearance was formed by wind and water erosion (gonshi - stones for contemplation, we are better known under the Japanese name suiseki ). “Without leaving your home, you will immerse yourself in the peaceful tranquility of the mountains, forget about the bustle of the city and get lost in the tranquility of the forests and the murmuring of streams” - the garden was designed to recreate an improved version of nature in miniature.
The most famous private gardens in China are located in Suzhou, largely due to the proximity to Lake Tai, famous for its gonshi stones called taihushi.
Zhuozhenyuan (Humble Official's Garden) is the largest classical garden in Suzhou. It arose during the heyday of the Ming Dynasty, when in 1509 the imperial censor Wang Xianchen “privatized” the garden of the Dahong Temple. After retiring in 1513, Wang, together with his friend, the famous artist and calligrapher Wen Zhengming, began creating a garden that lasted 13 years. The garden was named after a line from a poem by Pan Yue that a retired official should lead a modest lifestyle - plant trees and grow vegetables.
Van's son sold the garden in parts for gambling debts - so it was divided into three separate gardens, which repeatedly changed owners, rebuilding something in their own way. After 1949, the then owners “donated” their gardens to the People’s Republic, the unity of the garden was restored, and it itself was restored based on paintings by Wen Zhengming.
Zhuozhenyuan is open from 7:30 to 17:30, admission costs 70 yuan.
For any top attraction in any country in the world, there is a rule to arrive at the opening in order to avoid an influx of package tourists. In relation to the gardens of Suzhou, this rule is updated to the “reinforced concrete” stage (maybe only with and can be compared). If you don’t want to admire a small garden intended for the enjoyment of the owner and a couple of his friends, in the company of a dozen noisy Chinese and a couple of foreign tour groups, arrive at the latest by 8 am - this is why you should spend the night in Suzhou and not come for the day from Shanghai.
The total area of the garden is slightly more than 5 hectares, 48 buildings, the garden is divided into three parts. The entrance is located in the eastern part, which has its own name Guitianyuanjun (Stop when returning to the village).
This part is characterized by slides, bamboo and paths; its appearance was created by one of the owners, a major official Wang Xinyi, in 1631-1635.
Various pavilions are scattered among the countryside.
A large pond runs west from the Blooming Lotus Gazebo.
True, the lotuses did not bloom in my presence :)
Further along the path there will be a cute two-story gazebo of the Heavenly Spring.
I follow him through the trees to the house of Fragrant Rice.
From it the path goes to a round hole in the white wall
Behind which will be the central and main part of Zhuozhenyuan, mostly covered with water, along the banks of which numerous pavilions and gazebos are scattered.
At the very entrance, a secluded gazebo hung over the water.
From which you can see a couple of islands with hills on which their own gazebos rise.
Among the stones there are steps up to the Orange Gazebo.
But better views deep into the garden open from the neighboring hill, from the snow-white fragrant bird cherry gazebo.
Opposite her island stands the largest building in the garden - the Hall of the Distant Aroma (apparently coming from the aforementioned bird cherry tree).
I go further, to the bridge near the Lotus Breeze gazebo.
On the outermost island there will be the largest slide, with the Reflection Tower.
From here I will return to the south, entering the courtyard of the Hall of the Removed Aroma.
Inside the halls, houses and pavilions, the atmosphere of classical China is recreated.
I cross the covered Rainbow Bridge to the western part of the garden, Penjingyuan (Additional Garden), whose appearance is associated with the major historian of the 18th century Ye Shikuan.
Suzhou is an amazing city located on the shores of Lake Taihu and the Yangtze River in China. The city is known primarily for its centuries-old gardens and parks, canals and bridges. Trader and traveler Marco Polo called the city "Venice of the East".
The city was founded back in 514 BC. e. As the capital of the Wu kingdom, at that time the city was called Heliucheng. Only a thousand years later, in 589, the city received its current name Suzhou, in honor of Mount Sushan. Life has been in full swing here since ancient times. Caravans of traders came for the finest silk, which was produced here. The city grew rich very quickly, officials and merchants spent money on gardens and parks for themselves and for the population. In the 7th century, construction began on canals and a system of locks running throughout the city. The construction involved the labor of over five million people. These channels still operate today, attracting millions of tourists every year.
Travelers go to Suzhou, first of all, to see the most beautiful gardens, of which there are a lot and each has a name. The most famous: the Lion's Cave Garden, the Fishing Net Master's Garden, the Humble Official's Garden, the Blue Waves Park, the Garden of Peaceful Pastime. They were built as places for leisure and recreation. In the gardens, miniature landscapes imitated natural landscapes. Over the years, gardens in the courtyards of officials became the norm, and each official tried to make his own unique garden, in which every detail was thought out, and the structure itself was subject to the canons of his philosophical views.
The historical part of the city of Suzhou is completely covered with picturesque canals. The houses are usually built with one part facing the canal and the other facing the street. A walk around the city is perfect for romantics. After all, here you can enjoy a boat ride along the river canals, ride a rickshaw, meditate in the numerous gardens to the sound of the wind, and try the amazing local cuisine. Local sweets will surprise even the most avid gourmet. To get acquainted with the cuisine, it is better to go to the market. You should definitely bargain in the market, this will significantly reduce the price of the product. Here you will be offered traditional sweets made from rice flour, halva, and candies with pine nuts. Numerous restaurants serve baked ducks, shaggy crabs, soups made from shark fins and marsh turtles, and mandarin fish.
Classical Chinese gardens in the city of Suzhou are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. With the rise of Shanghai, the city has lost a little of its former grandeur, but, nevertheless, attracts many entrepreneurs. If you are one of them, then getting a business visa to China will not be difficult.
Suzhou is considered the center of the silk industry; it is home to China's largest textile factory producing silk products exported to all parts of the world. The fastest way to get to the city is from Shanghai. If you are not in a hurry, it is better to take a ferry and explore the surrounding landscapes.