Due to historical reasons such as wars, China's national economic center of gravity gradually shifted southward from the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty. Since the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, the southeast region has officially become the center of gravity of the national economy. Whether it is the history of the Song Dynasty, "the foundation of the country, to the southeast", or the Southern Song Dynasty proverb "Suhu is foot, the world is foot" all show the richness of the southeast, especially Taihu Lake. "Everyone says that Jiangnan is good, and tourists are only old in Jiangnan", "The sunrise river flowers are red, and the river is as green as blue in spring." Can you remember Jiangnan" and other popular poems are all praises of Jiangnan by literati and ink writers, so much so that later derived a widely circulated proverb - "There is heaven above, and there is Suzhou and Hangzhou below". The cities of Suzhou and Hangzhou are not only rich, but also very charming. Compared with the combination of rigidity and softness in Hangzhou, Suzhou is more small jasper, tender like water. What can leave such an impression in the hearts of tourists, in addition to Suzhou Pingtan and small bridges and flowing water, the biggest credit is none other than Suzhou Garden.

Suzhou Gardens are rich in traditional Chinese thought and cultural connotations, and are known as "recreating the world within easy reach" and have always been the benchmark of domestic gardens. In 2018, the total number of gardens in Suzhou reached 108, and the city's new business card, "Paradise Suzhou, City of Hundred Gardens", was born. Among the many gardens in this state, the most famous one is the Humble Administrator's Garden.

The Humble Administrator's Garden was built in the early years of the Ming Dynasty (early 16th century), covering an area of about 25,000 square meters, and is the largest existing classical garden in Suzhou. Because it is the representative of the gardens of the Ming, Song, Yuan and Qing dynasties with the Canglang Pavilion, the Lion Forest and the Lingering Garden, it is also known as the "Four Famous Gardens of Suzhou". Not only that, the Humble Administrator's Garden was also selected as one of the first national key cultural relics protection units promulgated by the State Council, along with the Lingering Garden, the Summer Palace in Beijing and the Chengde Summer Resort, so it was widely praised by the people as "China's Four Famous Gardens".

The first owner of the Humble Administrator's Garden was Wang Xianchen, who was an official worshipper and supervised the imperial history, and returned to the countryside to build a garden because of the frustration of officialdom. When the park was first established, it covered an area of about 200 acres. The internal buildings are sparse and scattered, with bamboo fences and flowers and trees, like a paradise-like manor, extremely simple. Such a garden landscape is also in line with Wang Xianchen's favorite Jin Dynasty Pan Yue's "Idle Residence Fu", "irrigate the garden and vegetables, for the morning and evening meals...... This is also the clumsy person for the government is also "meaning", the garden is also named "Humble Administrator's Garden". In the following hundreds of years, the Humble Administrator's Garden changed hands many times, and after several abandonments and repairs, the area has shrunk by half. It is worth noting that although the Humble Administrator's Garden was built in the Ming Dynasty, most of the garden heritage was rebuilt when the Humble Administrator's Garden became the garden of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and its exquisite and elegant style is still slightly different from the simplicity of the first dynasty. At present, the Humble Administrator's Garden is divided into two areas: a garden area and a residential area. The former is subdivided into three parts: east, middle and west, and the latter is located in the south of the park, adopting a typical Jiangnan residential pattern, and the main building is the first garden museum in China - Suzhou Garden Museum.

East Garden

The East Garden is the largest area in the entire park, about 21,000 square meters. Its original name was "Guiyuan Tianju", because Wang Xinyi, the servant of the Criminal Department, purchased this place in the fourth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (1631), and named it after careful management and arrangement. In modern times, the garden has long been deserted, so this place was redesigned after liberation. Compared with the two gardens in the middle and west, the east garden has slightly fewer buildings, mainly green pine forests and bamboo docks, with obvious pastoral style.

Visitors enter the park and arrive at the Lanxue Hall, the main hall of the East Garden. The hall sits in the north and faces south, and has a relatively open and simple courtyard, which renders an excellent atmosphere for the beginning of the garden. There is a partition in the hall, on which is placed an extremely fine artistic lacquer carving "Panorama of the Humble Administrator's Garden", highlighting the solemnity and elegance that the Jiangnan garden should have. Out of Lanxue Hall, there is a peak (Taihu Lake Stone) in the north that stands independently, like a cloud that gradually grows from bottom to top, and highlights the trees and flowers, which is called the cloud peak. There are twin peaks standing side by side in the northwest, which is called Lianbi Peak. The two peaks are the work of Chen Yiyun, a famous stacked stone master in the late Ming Dynasty, whose function is to block the internal garden, so that people cannot see through it at a glance - that is, the garden obstructs the scenery, caters to the Chinese feng shui theory, and prevents money from leaking. Out of this scene, other mountain ponds and pavilions are waiting for you to watch.

Medium Garden

The Middle Garden is the essence of the Humble Administrator's Garden, covering an area of 12,000 square meters. The park takes water as the theme, and its pool occupies nearly half of the area of the middle garden, which has a strong Jiangnan water town characteristics. The pools are generally northern, and most of the pavilions are built along the water in the south. The pavilion seems to be haphazardly decorated, but the layout is original. Yuanxiangtang is the main building on the south bank, and almost all the scenery of the park is built around it. The pavilion is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows, giving visitors the best vantage point to enjoy the garden views. There are embroidery pavilions, lotus pavilions, frost pavilions, and snow fragrance cloud pavilions that represent the scenery of spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively, and surround Yuanxiangtang, presenting the beauty of the season through seasonal plants. Among them, the lotus wind four-sided pavilion in the center of the straight pool is the most famous, with a wide field of vision, no matter where you look, it is an excellent scenery, and it is also the best place to view lotus flowers in the park. Every year in June ~ October, the "Lotus Festival" is held in the Humble Administrator's Garden. At that time, hundreds of kinds of lotus flowers compete for beauty, fragrant and clear, and tourists can fully enjoy the beautiful scenery of "green lotus cover green water, hibiscus covered with red and fresh". Due to the large number of visitors during this time, it is important to pay attention to safety in case you fall into the pool. It is also recommended that tourists come at a staggered peak.

The most classic view is the Wuzhu Secluded Residence located in the easternmost part of the Middle Garden, and its western view is "Infinite Blue of Lotus Leaves" (summer). If you look closely, you can see that the pagoda of Bao'en Temple in the distance is borrowed from the scene, and the technique can be called a textbook-level case. Located in the west of Yuanxiangtang, Xiaofeihong is a covered bridge, which is unique among the classical gardens of Suzhou. Xiao Feihong can see Xiangzhou closely, and the lotus wind can be seen in the middle and far pavilions and mountain towers, which become each other's excellent scenery. The covered bridge also divides the narrow water surface into a small world, which is combined with the Dezhen Pavilion to form a clever finish.

West Garden

The west garden has the smallest area, about 8,000 square meters, and the overall layout is relatively compact and elegant. The main building of the park is the Six Mandarin Duck Pavilion (Chinese substitute for the number 30), with two halls in the north and south. If it is subdivided, the south hall is the "Eighteen Mandala Flower Pavilion", and the north hall is the "Thirty-six Mandarin Duck Pavilion", which adopts the form of the Mandarin Duck Hall commonly used in ancient buildings. The museum has an antique furnishings and a vaulted roof structure that enhances the reflection of music. Therefore, in ancient times, the owner of the garden generally feasted and enjoyed the music here. The other main building of the West Garden is "Who to Sit with Xuan", which is a fan-shaped pavilion where visitors can sit on the porch chairs and enjoy the garden scenery. "Who to sit with" is named after "Who to sit with" in Su Shi's "Dotting the Lips and Leaning on the Hu Bed". The bright moon and clear breeze I", the artistic conception is quite beautiful, but the wall paint of the Xuan is obviously damaged, the cleanliness of the stone chair and stone table is not good, and the scenery is a little bad.

It is also worth viewing the Fucui Pavilion located at the highest point of the West Garden, which can overlook the scenery in the park; The Taying Pavilion in the northwest corner hides the source of the pool in the park, which is very ingenious.

Suzhou Garden Museum

The Suzhou Garden Museum has five exhibition halls: the preface hall, the garden history, the garden art, the garden culture, and the garden inheritance. Because the garden museum is relatively "small", foreign tourists can have a deeper understanding of Suzhou gardens in a short period of time. Visitors are advised to visit the museum in advance of their tour of the garden.

In addition to the summer lotus festival flowers, the Humble Administrator's Garden also has an azalea festival in spring and a chrysanthemum exhibition in autumn. Although there are no official events in winter, if it snows, the frosty beauty of the Humble Administrator's Garden is enough to make people linger. Each season, the Humble Administrator's Garden can give visitors a different wonderful experience and experience the poetry of the ancient city of Suzhou.

Information References:

Admission to the Humble Administrator's Garden:

70 yuan (October 31 ~ April 15)

90 yuan (April 16 ~ October 30)

Opening hours: 07:30~17:30

Admission to Suzhou Garden Museum: Free

Opening hours: 9:00-17:00 daily