Suzhou Lingering Garden

The Lingering Garden, one of Suzhou's four most famous gardens, was first built in the Ming Dynasty. The garden used to be the private residence of a wealthy merchant. It is quite huge, beautiful and extravagant. Almost instantly, upon entering the garden, people can hear traditional Chinese music. There are many people wearing Tang Dynasty-style clothing and playing Chinese traditional musical instruments, such as Pipa and Sanxian. There were musicians stood throughout the garden and they were there simply for the enjoyment of visitors. Some were singing, some were just playing, and some were duets. It really made the garden come alive. The cool thing about these Suzhou gardens is that they are designed for visitors only to see what the creators intended them to see at any given moment. As soon as you turn a corner, a whole new scene opens up and visitors are rewarded with scenes more splendid than the one they were just in.

The Lingering Garden can be divided into four parts. Visitors may appreciate different views of the hills, rivers, pavilions, buildings, flowers, courtyards, etc. The middle garden is the essence of the Lingering Garden, and the water is the most beautiful; in the east garden, the exquisite houses and corridors are amazing; in the north garden, visitors may feel that they are in a natural and quiet village; in the west garden, the special rockeries are the highlights. All of the arrangements show the high skills of the ancient experts in landscape gardens and the special art style of traditional Chinese landscape gardens.

Lingering Garden,Suzhou

The Lingering Garden has the most buildings among all the landscape gardens in Suzhou. It is a sample of the good use of space. The overall arrangements of pavilions and buildings pay attention to the combination of rockeries and ponds, the set-off of the flowers and plants, and the layers of the close shots and distant shots. Wherever the visitors stand, they can get a perfect picture.

Besides, the Lingering Garden has three treasures. First, Guanyun Peak is an absolute article made of Tai Lake stone. It is a product of the Song Dynasty. This rare stone has become the landmark of the Lingering Garden. Second, the Phoebe Zhenan Palace is made of the famous Phoebe Zhenan. Because of the wars, later, it is rebuilt again. Third, Ichthyolite is a marble picture. It is definitely natural. In the picture, the hills, rivers, waterfalls, and the moon are alive. The marble comes from Yunnan. So it is pretty far to transfer the stone from Yunnan to Suzhou.

The Lingering Garden was filled with small hills, rockeries, caves, paths, pavilions, and much more. Imagine if you lost your keys with the dozens of buildings, pavilions, and places to rest. It'd take months of searching by dozens of people to find them again. Maybe that's why the owner had servants whose only job was to take care of the keys. In the Lingering Garden, visitors usually enjoy Suzhou's local Kun Opera, like the Peony Pavilion. The singing style of Kun Opera is much more natural than that of Beijing Opera. All in all, the garden was beautiful!

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