Suzhou Humble Administrator's Garden

The Humble Administrator's Garden is one of Suzhou's four famous gardens. It was built during the Ming Dynasty by an official who was disillusioned with official life and decided to retire and move back to his hometown of Suzhou. He built the garden as a place to relax and forget about the cares of the world. The garden is huge! Each building and pavilion are meticulously placed and each has wonderful stories about them. Although this garden doesn't have performances in it, it does have music being played on hidden speakers throughout the garden. The garden's ponds and rivers are filled with lotus plants and when they are in bloom the garden draws visitors from all over for its Lotus Flower Festival.

The Humble Administrator's Garden is the deputy of the entire landscape gardens in Southern China. It covers an area of more than 50,000 square meters. It consists of four parts, that is, the east garden, the middle garden, the west garden, and the residence. The residence house is the traditional architectural style of ancient Suzhou. Now, the residence is decorated as the exhibition hall of the landscape garden museum.

The middle garden is the main tourist attraction, and it is the essence of the whole Humble Administrator's Garden. There is a pool in the center. Many pavilions and buildings are built along the pool. The pool covers three-fifths area of the whole garden. The elegant pavilions and buildings are strewing at random. The overall arrangement shows the art style of Ming landscape gardens. The "Far Fragrance Hall" is the main building of the middle garden. Facing the lotus flower, walking on the small bridge, enjoying the beautiful sight of the rockery and trees, each is wonderful!

The west garden is smaller. The water and rockeries are similar to the middle garden, but the waved water corridors and rivulets are excellent. The main building of the west garden is the "Sixteen Mandarin Duck Hall". It was the place where the owner of the garden treated guests. The furnishings and decoration are magnificent!

The east garden is called the "garden city". Most of the buildings and plants are newly built. The green pines, elegant pavilions, quiet pool fully show the vivid style of the landscape garden.

The residence is now opened as a Suzhou landscape garden museum. There are four exhibition halls in all. It shows the beautiful experience and charming mien of Suzhou landscape gardens. It surveys the development of Suzhou landscape gardens and the reason why the Suzhou landscape gardens are always flourishing in the past and at present.

The overall arrangement of the Humble Administrator's Garden is natural and elegant. It put the pools in the center and built pavilions and buildings along the water. Among them, there are a lot of leaking windows and cloisters combining different parts of the garden together. The rockeries and stones, ancient trees, green bamboos, and beautiful flowers make to be a tranquil and deep picture. It fully shows the architecture of the Ming Dynasty. All the indispensable features make the Humble Administrator's Garden be the first one of the four famous gardens in China.

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