Suzhou's Huanxiu Villa is a niche garden that should not be missed

Huanxiu Villa is a small and inconspicuous garden in Suzhou, not very large in scale, but it is one of the nine World Cultural Heritage gardens in Suzhou, along with the famous Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden. After all, it hides the most beautiful rockery in the south of the Yangtze River. The villa was originally the 'Jingu Garden' of the Qian family from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. After several ups and downs, in the 12th year of the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty (1807), Sun Jun invited the famous rockery master Ge Yuliang to reconstruct the garden. Since then, the garden has been known for its rockery. In the 29th year of the Daoguang era (1847), Wang Weiren purchased and built the Wang family ancestral hall, established the Gengyin Villa, and renovated the northeastern part of the garden. The garden became part of the 'Gengyin Villa' of the Wang family ancestral hall and was renamed 'Huanxiu Villa', also known as 'Yi Garden'. The entire Huanxiu Villa covers an area of more than two thousand square meters, with halls and courtyards in the front and pools and rockeries in the back. The rockery occupies only more than three hundred square meters, but it is famous throughout Suzhou for its ingenious stacking. The rockery, stacked by the Qing Dynasty master Ge Yuliang, plays a 'small but grand' scene in such a small space: streams, cliffs, precipices, canyons, stone bridges, secluded paths, and caves are all available, and there is even a pavilion on the mountain. The main peak of the rockery rises abruptly in the southeast, with a secondary peak to the northwest, and the pool water meanders between the two mountains, most of the rocks have whirlpool holes, and a few have wrinkles. The main peak is 7.2 meters high, the valley is 12 meters long, and the mountain path is more than 60 meters long. It is by virtue of this exquisite rockery that Huanxiu Villa has been successfully listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit and included in the UNESCO 'World Heritage List'. It occupies a place in Chinese garden architecture, and those who study the art and technology of gardening never underestimate this small garden. 📍Address: No. 272 Jingde Road, Gusu District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. 🎫Ticket: 15 RMB Opening hours: 08:30-16:00 🌈A Wonderful Introduction Entering the garden from the hall and courtyard, it takes only a few dozen steps to see the mountains, water, and architecture suddenly displayed before your eyes, unobstructed. According to Yang Hongxun's 'Discussion on Gardens in the South of the Yangtze River', there was originally a long corridor on the south side of the rockery, closely following the poolside, with windows left open at the protruding platform, and flower windows set up on the east side, allowing only the view of the mountain range from inside the building. Unfortunately, the corridor was later destroyed, and the entire rockery was laid bare. 🚶Tour Route From the main entrance, it is recommended to visit in the following order: Yougu Hall → Huanxiu Villa → Platform Rockery Landscape → Hanyun Pavilion → Side Building, Side Corridor → Wenquan Pavilion → Buqiu Boat → Bantan Autumn Water