Suzhou classical garden was first exported to America in 1979. It is called the Ming Room/明轩 in Astor Court of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Suzhou classical garden is the best hallmark of Suzhou tourism, so we invited local media journalists and travel agencies to Suzhou promotion activity, which was hold in the Ming Room on Oct. 2015.

Actually, the Ming Room was copied from Peony Study/殿春移 in the Master-of-Nets Garden/网师园 of Suzhou within the ratio of 1:1.

Why was Peony Study selected to be replication of the Ming Room? It was reported the curator of Metropolitan Museum of Art was very interested in Chinese traditional culture at that time. What's more, the museum happened to have some relics of the Ming Dynasty and the curator wanted to build one exhibition hall to show them in the museum, so he asked the Chinese government for help.

The Chinese Government collected and searched the relating information around China. Finally, Mr. Chen Congzhou/陈从周, who was famous professor of Tongji University for Chinese traditional architecture and classical gardens, recommended Peony Study and he thought it matched perfectly not only the size but also Ming style.

Suzhou local artisans made two same copies according to Peony Study at the beginning. They thought they could assemble successfully in America if they built the first copy in Suzhou Dongyuan/东园, which used to be the zoo of Suzhou.

Peony is planted around the study. As we know, peony always blosoms in late spring.

The name of Peony Study in Chinese means the small house at the corner in late spring.

Peony Study used to be the study of the owners of the garden in ancient time. Furthermore, world-famous artist-Zhang Daqian/张大千 lived here for five years in 1930s with his brother, Zhang Shanzi, who was also very famous artist in China.

Zhang Shanzi loved painting tigers very much so Zhang Daqian asked one of his friends to bring a tiger cub to his brother from the South of China. His brother took the cub as one of his the best friends in his life. The photo as follows hanging on the wall of the study showed us Zhang Shanzi was having some fun with the cub.

Unfortunately, the tiger died and buried in the garden. Tourists can see one monument to the tiger at the corner of the study, the characters of which were written by Zhang Daqian in 1982.

20 plus Suzhou classical gardens have been exported to different cities around the world since the Ming Room was copied from Suzhou. I am so proud of Suzhou classical gardens that more and more tourists can enjoy the tranquility and harmony of Suzhou classical gardens at their own cities without traveling to Suzhou.