Classical Gardens of Suzhou

The Classical Gardens of Suzhou are the most refined representations of the art of classical Chinese garden design. They are complex landscapes imitating natural scenery with pavilions, rocks, hills and rivers. The designs were especially adapted to the small space available in private gardens.

Suzhou’s landscape garden design flourished in the 16th-18th centuries, resulting in as much as 200 private gardens. The four gardens originally included in the World Heritage List were:
- Humble Administrator’s Garden
- Lingering Garden
- Garden of the Master of Nets
- Mountain villa with Embracing Beauty

In 2000, the site was extended to also include the following gardens:
- Canglang Pavilion
- Lion Forest Garden
- Garden of Cultivation
- Couple’s Garden Retreat
- Retreat and Reflection Garden
These five gardens date from different periods than the original ones (from the 11th – 19th centuries), but have been well-preserved too and show Chinese landscape gardening in their own right.

Visit October 2007

Out of the nine designated gardens, I visited four on a daytrip from Shanghai. I choose the ones that are located near the city center of Suzhou: the Humble Administrator’s Garden, the Lion Forest Garden, the Garden of the Master of Nets and finally the Canglang Pavillion. They are within reasonable walking distance from each other, about half an hour between each.

The Humble Administrator’s Garden is more what I'd like to call a park rather than a garden. Although space here is delusive: when I looked at the map of the garden at the entrance, I thought I would have to walk quite some distances. But all the scenery is linked and no space is left without any form of human design.

Nearby is the Lion Forest Garden. This is for sure the weirdest of the four. A whole mountain landscape is rebuilt here with lots of Taihu rockery. A contemporary (14th century) poem reads: "People say I am in a city, but I suspect I am among thousands of mountains". Visitors nowadays can climb up, under and through these rocks, something even the Chinese grannies did with ease and pleasure. I found it quite difficult to find a way out of the 'mountains', I suppose I'm too big or too tall to fit through all the openings.

To reach the Garden of the Master of Nets, you first have to brave an alley full of souvenir stalls and some beggars. The rooms in this house attract more attention than its tiny garden.

The Canglang Pavillion is one of the oldest in this WHS. It now looks somewhat desolate and is partly overgrown. Highlight here is the Bamboo House with its play of bamboo and sun.

To my own surprise, I rather liked my day at these gardens. The ones I visited are clearly different from each other and pleasing to the eye. And I also enjoyed myself by continuing to look out for "Things Chinese" - something I have started in Qufu inspired by the book of the same name. Besides the abundant Taihu rockery I ticked off a marble boat at the Lion Forest Garden, plenty of scenic openings in various shapes at the Canglang Pavillion and wonderful covered corridors in all gardens.

More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery

Reviews

JohnChichester (U.S.A.):
The classical gardens of Suzhou are, in my opinion, the most sophisticated, developed, atriculated, and complex, uses of privet urban space in the world. beautiful and fascinating.

Date posted: August 2006

Zack Culvert (USA):
Ditto the comment by the previous reviewer. Unless you are really into the culture and history of the scholar class in Suzhou, you are not going to appreciate it from other more robust sites in China. The pagoda, which was not part of the garden, was integrated into the design to give the lake a nice vanishing point. A nice touch, but again, it was just a private garden.

Date posted: June 2006

. ():
I found Suzhou's gardens to be frankly quite disappointing. My New York friend Pearl said once "You see one, you've seen them all!" sort of sums it up. There's nothing much to crow about Suzhou, unless you do it in a daytrip from Shanghai, where I live. Hangzhou and West Lake in Zhejiang province are much nicer weekend getaways by comparison.

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