Lion Grove Garden

Lion Grove Garden, located at Yuanlin Road in Suzhou in the Jiangsu Province, is world famous for its unique labyrinthine of taihu rocks and covers an area of 6,670 square meters. Its name comes from the garden’s lion-shaped rocks, and is also a reference to Lion Peak of Mountain Tianmu in the Zhejiang Province where abbot Zhongfeng attained Nirvana. In order to show their respects, his followers Tianru and many others contributed money to build the garden in his memory in the Yuan Dynasty. After Tianru’s death, however, the grove declined into a state of disrepair. In 1765, Emperor Qianlong visited and personally wrote a tablet titled “True Delight” as a gift, which helped to popularize the garden. In total, Qianlong visited 6 times. Then in the reign of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, the magistrate of Hengzhou bought the garden and rebuilt it with his son, a No.1 scholar at that time. At the same time, they renamed the location to Five Pines Garden. A rich prominent merchant named Bei Runsheng purchased the garden in 1917 and restored it as a private space, adding new sceneries to it in the following 7 years.

In today’s state, Lion Grove Garden can be divided into 3 general sections: the ancestral temple, residential, and county-yard sections. The main attractions include:

1. Hall of Swallow’s Blessing: the main hall in the garden, as well as the splendid and grand residential area surrounded by various flowers and trees that symbolize wealth and happiness.

2. Listening to the Rain Tower: a tower at the top of the garden that points to Cypress Hall, housing a calligraphy collection of rubbings from the steles embedded in the wall of the Five Pines Garden.

3. Flying Water Pavilion: a pavilion connected to the corridor and named for the fantastic flying waterfall nearby which is also the highest peak in the garden.

4. True Delight Pavilion: a royally grandiose water pavilion built to harbor the tablet of Emperor Qianlong.

Other points of interest include Bamboo Pavilion, Old Five Pines Hall, and Mountain View Tower which displays poems and calligraphic works by famous figures, carrying on the elements of cultural and artistic legacy for the following generations.