|
 Yuyuan
Garden, maybe the most
celebrated classical
Chinese garden in
Shanghai, is located in
the northeast of the old
town with an area of
fives acres. In 1559, a
Ming official named Pan
Yunduan launched the
construction of this
private garden for his
father’s pleasure. The
construction lasted for
19 years. Later, due to
the decline of the Pan
family, the garden
gradually fell into
oblivion. Furthermore,
several civil conflicts
in the mid-19th century
caused great damage to
it. After several
large-scale
re-constructions since
1949, Yu Yuan was
finally opened to the
public in 1961. The
garden each year
attracts countless
visitors at home and
abroad.
Built in a style that
Suzhou gardens often
take, Yuyuan garden is
characterized by
exquisite layout,
beautiful scenery and
the artistic
architecture. Each
pavilion, hall, stone
and stream in the garden
can express the
quintessence of South
China landscape design
from Ming and Qing
dynasties.
The bounding wall in the
garden, decorated with
dragon’s heads and paved
by scalelike tiles on
top, looks like a huge
wandering dragon. People
named it Five-dragon
Wall. More interesting
is that each dragon in
this wall only has four
claws. Legend goes that
when the wall was first
completed in the Qing
dynasty, like the dragon
in royal palaces, they
all have four claws. The
feudal ruler, regarding
it as a sign of
irreverence and
rebellion, then cut one
of the claws of each
dragon.
There are totally 30
scenic spots scatter in
this garden.
Five-dragon-wall
subdivide the garden
into six spots including
Grand Rockery,
Ten-Thousand-Flower
Pavilion, Hall of
Heralding Spring, Hall
of Jade Magnificence,
Inner Garden, and Lotus
Pool.
Grand Rockery: with a
height of 14 meters,
this rockery is built
about 400 years ago with
about 2,000 tons of
rocks, featuring
perilous peaks, cliffs,
winding caves and
gorges. It was said that
it is the highest
rockery in Shanghai as
well as the most
magnificent rockery in
southeast China during
the Ming dynasty. Today,
ascending the rockery,
people can make a
comprehensive survey of
the garden.
Hall of Heralding
Spring: located in the
east part of Yuyuan
garden, this pavilion
was built in the early
years of the Emperor
Daoguang’s reign. In
1853, it once served as
the seat of the Xiaodao
Hui, the Society of
Little Swords, who led
an uprising against Qing
rule and occupied
Shanghai for 17 months.
Today, weapons and coins
made by the Xiaodao Hui
are exhibited in this
hall.
Inner Garden: originally
built in 1709, this
garden used to be a
garden in Chenghuang
Temple. In 1956, when
the garden was restored,
the east garden and west
garden were combined and
the inner garden formed.
Attractions in Inner
Garden include elegant
rockeries, ponds, walls,
etc.
The garden is
acknowledged as "an
architectural miracle in
the region south of
Yangtze River". |
