Yu Garden - Design

Design

Today, Yu Garden occupies an area of 2 hectares (5 acres), and is divided into six general areas laid out in the Suzhou style:

  • Sansui Hall (三穗堂, Sān Suì Táng, "Three Tassel Hall") – includes the Grand Rockery (大假山, Dà Jiǎshān ), a 12-meter-high rockery made of huangshi stone, featuring peaks, cliffs, winding caves, and gorges. This scenery was possibly created by Zhang Nanyang during the Ming Dynasty.
  • Wanhua Chamber (万花楼, Wàn Huā Lóu, "Chamber of the Ten Thousand Flowers")
  • Dianchun Hall (点春堂, Diǎn Chūn Táng, "Heralding Spring Hall") – built in 1820, the first year of the Daoguang Emperor; served as the base of the Small Swords Society from September 1853 to February 1855
  • Huijing Hall (会景楼, Huì Jǐng Lóu)
  • Yuhua Hall (玉华堂, Yù Huá Táng, "Jade Magnificence Hall") – furnished with rosewood pieces from the Ming Dynasty, shares its name with a mountain near Xinye in Zhejiang.
  • Inner Garden (内园, Nèi Yuán) – rockeries, ponds, pavilions, and towers; first laid out in 1709 and more recently recreated in 1956 by combining its east and west gardens.

Each area is separated from the others by "dragon walls" with undulating gray tiled ridges, each terminating in a dragon's head.

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