Zhan Garden in Nanjing

Zhan Garden is the oldest existing Ming Dynasty classical garden in Nanjing and one of the 'Four Famous Gardens of Jiangnan.' Its history can be traced back to the Wu King's Mansion before the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, claimed the throne, which was later granted to the mansion garden of Xu Da, the King of Zhongshan. It is famous for its rockeries and was named after the poem by Ouyang Xiu, 'Looking at the Jade Hall, as if it is in the sky,' and was known as 'the number one garden in the Southern Capital' during the Ming Dynasty. It is now a key national cultural relic protection unit and a national 5A-level tourist attraction. Zhan Garden is the best-preserved Ming Dynasty classical garden architectural complex in the Nanjing area and is also the only Ming Dynasty royal mansion open to the public. The area of Zhan Garden is about 20,000 square meters, with more than twenty scenic spots of various sizes. The layout is elegant and exquisite, featuring magnificent ancient Ming and Qing buildings, steep and lofty rockeries, the famous Northern Song Dynasty Taihu rocks, quiet and elegant pavilions, and bizarrely stacked peaks. Inside Zhan Garden, there is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom History Museum, which is the only museum in China dedicated to the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Scenes from the 1987 version of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' and the Zhao Yazhi version of 'The Legend of the White Snake' were filmed in Zhan Garden.