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Yuyuan Garden

Yuyuan Garden is situated at the south district of Shanghai. It was built in the Ming dynasty. The Garden is a representative of the classical architectural style and is acknowledged as an architectural miracle in the region southeast of the Yangtze River.

Yuyuan began as a private garden created by Pan Yunduan, who spent almost 20 years, to build a garden in order to please his parents in their old age.The Garden is typical of Suzhou style. Each pavilion, hall, stone and stream in the garden expresses the essence of South China's landscape design from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Covering 20,000 square meters, Yuyuan Garden has more than 40 scenic spots, which is divided into six parts by five boundary walls, including Grand Rockery, Flower Pavilion, Hall of Heralding Spring, Hall of Jade Magnificence, Inner Garden, and Lotus Pool. The Grand Rockery is the most elaborate, venerable and glorious rockery in southeastern China. Each part of the park, although divided, has a balance and harmony creating a unity of expression.

The bounding wall in the garden, decorated with dragon's heads and paved by scalelike tiles on top, looks like a huge wandering dragon. The dragon was designed with only four claws, not five like the dragons in the royal palaces, as a way of avoiding irreverence and rebellion in the feudal society.

The surrpounding bazaar is packed with traditional and modern shops, restaurants and temples.