Garden of the humble official

The most beautiful garden of Suzhou is the Garden of the humble official. In the 16th century, the official An Xianshen, accused of corruption and removed from service, began the construction of this park. And the name for the garden was borrowed by An Xiansheng from a classic Chinese work in which the main character - "modest official" - devoted himself to gardening. On the territory of more than 4 hectares, the official made a real miracle of landscape design.

Most of the territory is occupied by the lake, there are many islands with bridges, crossing ponds in zigzag, open arbors, pavilions and natural sculptures of stones. In total, there are about 50 buildings of various types in the garden. Artfully laid pebbles paths resemble a mosaic.

The garden consists of three parts: Eastern, Central and Western, each of which has its own architectural and natural features. In the Eastern part, the main buildings are the Hall of Orchids and Snow and the Pavilion of Divine Spring. The main building of the Central part is the Hall of Far Fragrance, located next to a pond with water lilies. Here is the Northern Pagoda. The most interesting structure can be seen in the Western part of the garden: divided into north and south pavilion with Halls 36 Pairs of Mandarin Ducks and Hall 18 Camellia. In summer you can watch ducks that swim in the pond, and in winter - admire artificial camellias.