Gardens in Suzhou

Natural frame

There's a Chinese saying that says, "上有天堂, 下有苏杭 (Shang you tian tang, xia you su hang)" which means above there is heaven, down here there are Suzhou and Hangzhou. 

I had limited time in Hangzhou. To make it fair, I would have to reduce my time in Suzhou as well. LOL. Just joking.

As mentioned in my previous post, I've already made reservation on Tongli's lodging, otherwise I would've move Suzhou to Day 1 and Tongli in Day 2, leaving Day 3 to Wuxi. Between Suzhou and Tongli, Tongli is a smaller area, rather than limited time on both places, I thought I'll spend more time in Tongli.

As Suzhou was near Wuxi, just 15 minutes on G train, I managed to visit two attractions in Suzhou - Huqiu Hill (虎丘) or also known as Tiger Hill and 拙政園 (The Humble Administrator's Garden).

Entrance to Tiger Hill

There are two versions of how Tiger Hill got it's name. According to version number one, a white tiger was seen to be crouching on the tomb of the father of Fuchai, Emperor of Wu State. The other version, the more boring version, was just simply because the tomb resembled a crouching tiger.

There was a flower festival at the time of my visit, there were heaps of beautiful tulips!

Yellow

Pink

Orangey red

I'm not cluey about gardens, let alone traditional old Chinese gardens but I do appreciate the greenary in a city. Technically, because Suzhou is still a city but Tiger Hill is a big away from the the city centre.

On a information board at the entrance to Tiger Hill, it stated of how every corner of Tiger hill is suitable for making poems (I think it might mean inspires poem writing?) and how a well-known poet in Northern Song Dynasty, no other than Su Dongpo sang praises of Tiger Hill, "It's a great pity if one comes to Suzhou without visiting Huqiu (Tiger Hill)."

I'm no poet and I have no knowledge how highly Su Dongpo saw Tiger Hill prior to my visit but the reason why I chose Tiger Hill as one of the two places to visit on my short trip there was this leaning tower.

It is leaning, I didn't have any seasick or slant this on purpose

I have soft spot for old towers, the leaning part of it makes it even more special. This is Tiger Hill Pagoda, also called Yunyansi Pagoda is a seven-storey octahedron brick-timberwork pavilion. Built during the Northern Song Dynasty, it slants to the northeast when it was completed, but it has survived for over 1000 years.

I heard part of a guided tour in Tiger Hill that walls in Suzhou gardens are usually white in colour with big windows so the scenaries are viewed through those windows are paintings, like the first photo.

Yes, I know this is a doorway

But, here are some other windows.

I took a bus from Tiger Hill to 拙政園 (Zhuozheng Yuan, The Humble Administrator's Garden), at a very affordable RMB 1.

Entrance to Zhuozheng Yuan

As this garden has a super long name, I'll just refer to it as the garden. It was originally built during the Ming Dynasty. It was initially a private garden of a former government servant named Wang Xianchen. It was said that he intended to build a garden after his retirement and just do some gardening work, which was said to the life of a humble man, hence the name.

The garden is separated into three principal parts - east, central and west. It also has a Penjing Nursery inside the garden.

Central part of garden

Penjing

Some random wall

Side note: I remember not liking oats but now I think its yummy...maybe one day I'll think Greek yoghurt are nice too...not! :P