Yuyuan Carden was built during the reign of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1577), and it has a history of over 400 hundred years. It used to be a residential garden built by Pan Yunduan, minister of finance in Sichuan Prooince in the Mig Dynasty. Pan built the garden to “please his parents and let them enjoy themselves in their late years”. In ancient Chinese “yu” means “pleasing”, hence the name of the garden.
The garden is typical of the gardening art south of Yangtze River and is famed as “a wonder of beauty in south-east China”. At the end of the Ming Dynasty the garden was deserted. It was rebuilt in the 25th year of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1760). In the 19th century, during the Opium War, the beautiful garden was badly damaged. After 1949, the municipal government renovated the garden several times. It was opened to the public in 1961.
On entering the gate, you will come face to face with the Three Corn-ear Hall. Standing in the hall and looking up, you will see a horizontal plaque with the characters “Mountains and Forests in the City”, describing the environment of the garden being located in the midst of a bustling town yet full of the natural pleasantness of mountain and forests. Going through the “Hall of Viewing the Mountain” you can see a large rockery on the other side of a pond. It is 12-m high, piled up with 2,000 tons of yellow stones, full of twists and turns, looking magnificent and enchanting. The Inner Garden was built in the 48th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1708), occupying only an area of 0.13 hectare but complete with all the rockeries, ponds, halls, chambers, pavilions and terraces, crenelated walls and corridors, cleverly arranged and proportionately laid out. In front of the Hall of Jade Magnificence in the Outer Garden are 3 stone peaks; in the middle of these is the Exquisite Jade Stone. It is one of the famous exquisite stones south of Yangtze River, the other two being the Duanyun Peak in Suzhou and the Wrinkled Peak in Hangzhou. It is 3.2-m tall. In the stone are 72 holes. If you burn incense at the bottom, smoke will come out from all the holes; if you pour water from the top, there will be water dripping from all the holes. In the garden there are such famous tourist attractions, like the Happy Fish Waterside Pavilion, a Thousand Flower Hall, the Hall of Mildness, the Hall of Elegance, the Nine-zig Bridge, the lotus pond, and the Mid-lake Pavilion. This classical garden, integrating the gardening art of the Ming and Qing Dynasties with chambers and halls, beautiful rockeries, luxuriant trees and plants, is featured by its gracefulness and peacefulness, delicateness and exquisiteness, small but striking you as large, presenting the artistic styles of gardens south of Yangtze River. It deserves the fame of a masterpiece of classical gardens. It is listed as a key cultural relic protected by the state and a popular tourist attraction for both domestic and overseas tourists.
Shanghai Yuyuan Garden Travel Tips
Admission Fee: CNY40
Opening Hours: 08:30-17:30
