The Lingering Garden was inscribed as the world cultural heritage site by UNESCO in 1997 becasue of the beauty of its magnificent halls and the various sizes, shapes and coloures of the buildings.

With a history of more than 400 years, the Lingering Garden has changed hands several times. But each times the owner made a great effort to preserve its characters. The garden was first built in 1593 (during the Ming Dynasty) by Xu Taishi who was a high-ranking official in charge of the Emperor’s horses and vehicles.

As you see, grown on the flower bed are two trees, one is cypress and the others is camellia. Both of them were planted in 1984 instead of original ones, above the trees is a brick tablet carved with four characters, meaning 'old trees with intertwined branches' , which are a symbol of a happy pair-husband and wife showing their deeply love and longevity. On the other hand, it acts as a nice painting that is well designed to form a picture decorating such a small yard and let in sunbeams and fresh air, so it is very comfortable for us to be here.

The layout of the yard is quite unique. As we see the rockeries, trees and a stalagmite are arranged with the white wall as the background, such a design is based on the idea that the white wall is like a sheet of paper and is painted with trees and rocks as the main theme. So it is regarded as a Chinese traditional painting.

The crane is a symbol of longevity, a lotus flower means the noble and beauty, golden fish means freedom and treasure,phenix, which equals to a dragon in China, If you let them intertwined. It will show us auspicious omens with peace and goodluck.

Seen from across the pond, the whole building looks like a tourist boat. When taking a walk in Suzhou city, you’ll find a tourist boat like this shape cruising in the river. This is a head of the boat, body of a boat, end of a boat hidden(out of sight). when a breeze riffles the pond, it resembles a painted tourist boat cruising against the current. 

It is a highest place in the garden. On the rockery stands the enjoyable pavilion. The ground around the pavilion is paved with eight designs known as Hidden Eight Immortals. These eight designs symbolize eight articles carried by eight Immortals in Taoist, they are a fan, a gourd, a lotus flower, a sword, a flute, a flower basket, a pair of canes and the bamboo percussion instrument.

The Hanbi Mountain villa is the main hall in the central part of the garden and these furnifure is made of mahogany which is a kind of handmade wood products with a history of many years. There is no walls in the front and at the back of the hall. 18 long windows windows can be removed in the warming days and the owner of the garden, can blend himself into both sceneries outside and enjoy more landscapes.

The cloud capped peak it is a 6.5-metre-tall Taihu limestone weighing five stones. This is an ornamental limestone with four features. Lean, wrinkle, hollow and perforated. The rock looks slim and has a rugged figure. It is hollowed because it contains a lot of cavities, and it is perforated for there are a lot of small holes connected to each other inside. After raining, the rock can drain water through these inner ting holes.

Beside the peak stand two other rocks. One called the Auspicious cloud peak to the east and the other, the mountainous cloud peak to the west. The three rocks have been known as the three peak of the Lingering Garden. There was an old saying that the owner of the garden named his three daughters after the three peaks which is very nice to call them in Chinese pronunciation(冠云、瑞云、岫云)unfortunately that the second daughter died very young made the owner so sad that he broke the top of the rock angrily.

When we get to the moon gate with 'Another village' carved above, we’ll see a bonsai garden with about five hundred potted landscapes which is a complete display of Suzhou miniature landscapes. The owner used to grow melons and vegetables and raised poultry for his secluded life.

The western part is famous for natural scenery. It is a huge rockery built from stacked stones and soil that was taken from the middle section during the Ming Dynasty. Maples cover the hill, so it is extraordinarily beautiful when all the leaves turn red in autumn. A flight of steps up the hill takes the owner and his family to shout-for-joy pavilion and the delightful pavilion to enjoy the scenery both in and out of the garden. By a small stream at the foot of the hill lies the pavilion of liveliness place, blending with each other harmoniously.

It's right time for narcissus to bloom, so the garden is holding the flowers festival during the spring festival holidays. Don't miss such magnificent bonsai flowers.

We are enjoying fantastic views at the Lingering Garden in the last day of Sheep year and show some our photos in memory of the past year.

Have a healthy and happy Chinese New Year for everyone!