Me & City (Suzhou, China)

The Master of the Nets Garden, which belongs to the World Culture Heritage List by UNESCO,  is one of the four most famous gardens in Suzhou.  MNG is a very typical Suzhou style garden, which is also a representing work of the pocket- sized classical garden in the  southern areas of the lower reaches of the Yangze River.

The garden was first built in Southern Song dynasty, AD 1174, owned by SHI Zhenzhi, a government officer who residing in Suzhou after his retirement.  SHI named it as “The fisherman’s Retreat”, from which his willing to return to pastoral is expressed definitely.

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The garden was re-built in Qing dynasty, around AD1765 and was re-named as the one of today. During the past long time history, MNG was handed over from one owner to another. Until  1950, the offspring of HE Yanong, the latest host  of the garden donated it to the public. After a fully re-construction taken in 1958 by Suzhou Garden Bureau,  the garden opened to public officially.

As I mentioned MNG is a pocket-sized garden, she do illustrate how less than more.  The center of the garden is a pond with pathways and pavilions surrounding. Different buildings, decorated with trees, flowers and rockeries, are perfectly spaced to realize unlimited vision effect in  limited space, scenes beyond scenes.

Enjoy the pictures I took in the Master of the Nets Garden with me or visit the official site of MNG for more info!

As a Suzhou native, I was asked many times by visitors that what is the most specialty of Suzhou I could not miss to introduce to strangers. I bet absolutely 99% of the natives will have the same answer that is the classical gardens. Then pop the next question “Is there a garden that I must visit since there are quite a lot of gardens in Suzhou town?” Yes! If you have not enough time to visit several gardens one by one , there is one you really can’t miss it—The Humble Administrator Garden.

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Maybe you have no idea what’s the difference between gardens in Suzhou with other places. Different with the royal gardens in Beijing, the classical gardens in Suzhou are private gardens in history. Of course, almost all of them have become tour spots nowadays.

The Humble Administrator’s Garden, covering 5.2 ha., is built as early as the 4th year of the reign of Zhengde under the Ming Dynasty (1509 A..D). It is one of the four most famous gardens in China, enjoying the same reputation with The Summer Palace in Beijing, the Imperial Mountain Summer Resort in Chende and another Suzhou classical garden named The Lingering Garden.

Currently the whole garden is separated into three main parts, the east, middle and the west. And a part of the the housing complex has been converted for the use as the Suzhou Garden Museum.

The garden kept the style of the Ming Dynasty fully and it was inscribed  on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1997.  In 2003 it was listed as the National Tourist Attraction of Grade AAAA. I couldn’t remember how many times I have been to the garden since I was a little child and I personally think the beautiful waterscapes, exquisite buildings and luxuriant vegetation are matched so well, which make the garden has a unlimited scenery in a limited room. Every building, every pavilion has it’s own story to explore. I will add posts one by one later. Let’s first enjoy some pictures I took!