What are the layouts of the Summer Palace in Beijing and the Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou?

The Summer Palace in Beijing and Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou largely reflect the differences between the existing large royal gardens in the north and the private gardens in the south of the Yangtze River in Ming and Qing Dynasties. One common feature of the two is that they both imitate the natural landscape, give priority to the (asymmetric) layout, and pay attention to the treatment methods such as shifting scenery, spatial infiltration and borrowing scenery.

The most representative gardens in Suzhou are Humble Administrator's Garden, Lion Forest, Lingering Garden, Master's Garden, Canglang Pavilion and Huanxiu Villa, among which Humble Administrator's Garden is the most distinctive. The layout of Humble Administrator's Garden is so ingenious that it combines mountains and rivers, so that it is even more representative than the Summer Palace in Beijing in garden architecture.

Humble Administrator's Garden is located at No.0/78, Northeast Street, Suzhou, covering an area of 52,000 square meters. The whole garden is divided into four parts: East, Middle, West and Residential. Folk houses are typical Suzhou folk houses, which are now arranged as exhibition halls of garden museums. The eastern part is bright and cheerful, with Pinggang Mountain, pine lawn and bamboo house Qushui as the main areas. The garden is divided into three parts: east, middle and west. The east garden is spacious, the middle garden is the essence of the whole garden, and the west garden is very delicate.

Garden South is a residential area, reflecting the typical pattern of traditional houses in Jiangnan area. There is also the Suzhou Garden Museum in Yuannan, the only garden museum in China, which is worth visiting.