Top 8 Classical Gardens of Suzhou

As the largest classical garden of Suzhou, Humble Administrator’s Garden was first built in the early 16th century, which is the prototype of classical garden design. Considered as one of China’s four most famous gardens, it boasts the elegant layout that the whole garden with water as the center, and it is surrounded by mountains and rivers, luxuriant flowers and trees. The garden consists of Eastern, Central and Western parts as well as some residences of the former owners. The Central Garden is the highlight of your garden tour, where you can appreciate a large-scale lake filled with lotuses and a large number of elaborate scenic pavilions. Besides, if you are interested, the Suzhou Garden Museum, the only garden museum in China is located in the south of the garden.

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As the most exquisite classical garden of Suzhou, Lingering Garden is also one of the four most famous gardens in China. With the Qing Dynasty style, it is famous for its fabulous architectural art: spacious and gorgeous halls and various-style buildings. The whole garden is roughly divided into four parts. The east is dominated by well-designed buildings; the middle is dotted with ponds and plants; the west is the towering rockeries interlaced with earth and stone, and the north is picturesque idyllic scenery. In addition, the over 700-meter-long (765.5 yards) corridor is one of the major attractions of Lingering Garden. The winding corridor is lined with colorful plants and lake stones of various shapes, which adds a more poetic garden landscape.

Master of Nets Garden was built in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and is the smallest one in the classical gardens of Suzhou. However, its ingenious design that arranging rockery, pavilions, pastoral and residence reasonably in a limited space brings visitors an illusion of a larger garden. The Master of Nets Garden is a typical private garden integrated with the house, which consists of three parts: residential area, central main garden and inner garden. Waterscape can be appreciated everywhere throughout the garden, and a variety of buildings with compact layout are quite exquisite. Also, the traditional Night Garden Performance will bring you a unique experience of landscape with folk music.

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Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty covers an area of only 0.5 acre, but it integrates traditional arts of architecture, garden, sculpture, ancient literature and lime-carving. The rockery is the highlight of the Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty. With lifelike caves, canyons and cliffs, the whole rockery shapes as a natural mountain. The massive rockery surrounded by streams on three sides occupies a half of the garden. It fully reflects the amazing skills of rockery construction, which can be regarded as the best Lake Stone Rockery in China.

Lion Grove Garden is one of the four most famous classical gardens of Suzhou. It was built in 1342 by a Buddhist disciple in memory of his master. In this garden, visitors can not only enjoy the classical style of Suzhou pavilions, but also appreciate the limpid lake and grotesque rocks. Most of these rocks look like lions in different postures, such as roaring, sleeping and playing. Thus, the garden is also known as the “Kingdom of Rockery”. The rockeries are just like a maze, and visitors can even play hide-and-seek with their children. Also, the garden is covered with dense bamboo forest, under the bamboo dotted with lots of lion-shape stones. Visitors can walk through the bamboo and appreciate the exquisite stones up close.

Located in the southern part of Suzhou, the Canglang Pavilion is the oldest garden in Suzhou. Different from other gardens, visitors can see a pool of green water around Canglang Pavilion before entering the garden. Inside the garden, the amazing man-made rockeries are the main landscape and above them, there is a stone pavilion named Canglang Pavilion. Standing there, you can enjoy an amazing panoramic view of the garden. There are also double verandas connecting the rockeries inside and the waterscape outside. The double verandas are lined with colorful flowers and dotted with lattice windows. Besides, the whole garden is planted with green trees and viridian bamboo, so that you can stroll along the paths to feel a dreamland of the primitive forest.

Located in the northwest corner of the Suzhou Old Town, Tiger Hill has a long history of more than 2,500 years. Tiger Hill is 34.3 meters (112.5 feet) high and covers an area of 0.19 square kilometers (near 47 acres). However, within such a small area, it integrates the natural landscape and cultural landscape perfectly, showing visitors hills, bizarre rocks, cliffs, spring water, streams, ancient trees, stone carvings, ancient bridges as well as Neolithic cultural relics. In addition, Tiger Hill holds Temple Fair from the first day to the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, and Flower Show from March to May every year, displaying a large number of famous flowers and plants, such as tulip, narcissus and azalea.

Located in the Xiaoxinqiao Lane of Pingjiang Road, the Couple’s Retreat Garden was built in the early Qing Dynasty, and surrounded by water. The name of Couple’s Retreat Garden is to express the idea of a couple living in seclusion. The distinctive layout that one residence with two gardens - East Garden and West Garden is absolutely rare in other gardens. The Yellow Stone Rockeries surrounded by water are the highlights of your garden tour. There are docks inside the garden where you can enjoy a carefree boat trip. Compared with many famous gardens such as Humble Administrator’s Garden, it is more restful and less-crowded, very suitable for exploring at a very leisurely pace. Due to the small space, visitors can finish the tour within 1 hour. Moreover, the garden is only 500 meters (547 yards) away from the famous Pingjiang Road, so tourists can visit there by the way.