Suzhou’s gardens are the jewels of Chinese garden art. Visiting the gardens is an essential activity in Suzhou, and the Humble Administrator’s Garden is one of the most famous gardens in Suzhou. The Humble Administrator’s Garden is one of the most famous gardens in Suzhou. It is known as one of the “Four Great Gardens” in China, along with the Summer Palace in Beijing, the Summer Resort in Chengde, and the Liouyuan Garden in Suzhou, and is also known as the “mother of all gardens in the world”.
The Humble Administrator’s Garden is divided into three parts: east, center and west. The East Garden is spacious and sparsely landscaped; the Middle Garden is the essence of the whole garden, with every part carefully designed; and the West Garden is beautifully constructed, each with its own distinctive features. The southern part of the garden is the residential area, showing the typical pattern of Jiangnan residential houses with many entries. While you are here, you can also visit the Suzhou Garden Museum, a domestic museum in China specializing in the art of gardens.
Walking into the Humble Administrator’s Garden, you will see woods, lawns and streams, which look ordinary but carry a natural wildness that is unique among the exquisite Suzhou gardens. Other gardens in Suzhou are nowhere near as large as the Humble Administrator’s Garden, and cannot provide such a vast space to display natural wildness.
Ponds, lotus flowers, pavilions and promenades, which are also common in other gardens, are skillfully matched in the Humble Administrator’s Garden to create a different landscape. On one side of the lotus pond is the Yuanxiang Hall, which is the main building of the Humble Administrator’s Garden and around which all the landscapes of the garden are centered.
Next to the Yuanxiang Hall, there is a beautiful corridor bridge across the pond, which has an equally beautiful name: Little Flying Rainbow. Corridor bridges are not uncommon in the water towns of Jiangnan, but they are extremely rare in Suzhou gardens. The Little Flying Rainbow is like a flying rainbow across the water, constituting a unique scene in the Humble Administrator’s Garden and becoming one of the classics of the garden.
Walking over the small rainbow, you will come to a pavilion gallery built against the water, which surrounds a quiet water courtyard. Walking out of the water courtyard, you will see another iconic landscape of the Humble Administrator’s Garden: the Fragrant Island. Xiangzhou is a stone boat. Similar stone boats are not uncommon in Chinese gardens, but Xiangzhou in the Humble Administrator’s Garden stands out with its unique shape and beautiful style. The bow is a platform, the front cabin is a pavilion, the middle cabin is a pavilion, the stern is a pavilion, and there is a building on the pavilion. Small Xiangzhou, set of pavilions in one, standing in the distance look, like a floating in the lotus pond boat.
And Xiangzhou across the lotus pond is opposite to see the mountain building, this is a building on the water, three sides of the water around the two-story building, with a typical residential style of Jiangnan. The ground floor is called “Lotus-root Fragrance Salon”, and there is a circle of “Beauty Leaning” around the outside, where visitors can take a rest and enjoy the scenery. Inside is a study room where the loyal king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Xucheng, is said to have liked to work.
Turning to the western part of the scenic spot, you will see the undulating corridors and the scenery reflected in the water waves, which is a different kind of interest. Standing in the East Garden and looking west, you can see the Beiji Pagoda 1 kilometer away as if it were in the garden. This is a view that many tourists take pictures of, and the technique of borrowing scenery can be seen everywhere in the Humble Administrator’s Garden, and you can experience it for yourself when you visit.
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When you come to the Humble Administrator’s Garden, you may only be able to appreciate one-twelfth of its subtlety because it is so high on the list of ancient Chinese gardens. But even so, you can take the Humble Administrator’s Garden as a representative to feel the poetry of Suzhou gardens and enjoy the cozy atmosphere that can be seen, practiced, visited and lived in.Spring, summer and fall are all great for visiting the Humble Administrator’s Garden, and in winter there will be far fewer people there, but you can enjoy the clear and beautiful scenery in peace.