The oldest classical garden in Suzhou is the Humble Administrator's Garden.

The oldest classical garden in Suzhou is the Humble Administrator's Garden

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The garden was first built in 1541 as a private garden in the 20th year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, and then it underwent many alterations and expansions until it reached its heyday in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. The Humble Administrator's Garden is famous for its exquisite landscape layout, fine architecture and humanistic landscape, and is one of the models of garden art in China, as well as one of the four famous gardens in China.

The Humble Administrator's Garden is located in the center of downtown Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, covering an area of 5.2 hectares. The garden is divided into east and west parts, the east garden is dominated by rockery and bridges and flowing gardens, while the west garden makes use of the open flat land with a number of pavilions, ponds and gardens and other landscapes.

The garden preserves a large number of buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as the Rain Flower Pavilion, Cuiwei Hall, and Cherry Blossom Cave, in addition to a variety of exquisite carvings, furnishings, and works of art.

The Humble Administrator's Garden, known as the "Palace of Embroidery and the Crown of Gardens", has been listed on the World Cultural Heritage List for many times, and is one of the most important representatives of traditional Chinese garden culture, as well as a landmark building and tourist attraction in Suzhou.

The design of the whole garden is very exquisite, and the tour can be said to be "one step at a time", reflecting the flavor of the Jiangnan water town. The paths in the garden are twisting and turning, from the heavy porch, hollow patterned stone walls, to each pavilion, each window are not the same, and with the trees and flowers and grasses with just the right combination, constituting a picturesque landscape, you can spend a lot of time to photography.

The whole garden is divided into three parts: east, middle and west, each with its own characteristics, especially the middle garden which basically maintains the simple and natural style of the Ming Dynasty gardens, and it is the essence of the whole garden, which can be played in detail. While the East Garden is more open, the West Garden is beautifully constructed, and there is also the Suzhou Garden Museum at the south end of the Humble Administrator's Garden, which is a special museum of gardens in China.

The main landscapes of the Humble Administrator's Garden include Lanxue Hall, Hanqing Pavilion, Yuanxiang Hall, Xiangzhou, 36 Mandarin Ducks Pavilion and Bonsai Garden. There are also two very interesting famous scenery, one is the "North Temple Pagoda Borrowed Scenery".

Standing in the East Garden to the west, you can see 1 kilometer away from the North Temple Pagoda, as if in the garden, this is a lot of tourists will take pictures of the scenery, and borrowed landscape techniques can be seen everywhere in the garden, you can experience some of the tour; second is the garden in the "small rainbow bridge", the vermilion bridge railings reflected in the water like a rainbow, and the main landscape of this bridge, the bridge is a very interesting.

Spring, summer and fall are very suitable for playing the Humble Administrator's Garden, mid-March to early May there are azalea exhibition, early June to mid-October there are lotus exhibition, early September to mid-October there are chrysanthemum exhibition, and during the Spring Festival there are also fruits and flowers bonsai exhibition. In winter, there are many fewer people there, but you can enjoy the beautiful scenery in peace and quiet.