Ge Garden

Geyuan Garden is the residential garden rebuilt by Huang Zhiyun（1770－1836), salt satrap of Lianghuai Area (today’s Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces) on “Shouzhi Garden” in Qing Dynasty. For the garden’s owner was fond of bamboos, and for the shape of bamboo leaf looks like the Chinese character “个”，so the garden got its name. Covering an area of 24000 square meters, it is divided into three parts: the garden part in the middle, the residence in the south, the area of appreciating and planting bamboos in the north. The most famous scene in the garden is the rockery of four seasons which is piled by bamboo stones, lake stones, yellow stones and Xuan stones. The exquisite piling stone skill, melting the gardening principles into the hill, water and painting is marvelous. In the garden, old trees towering to the sky, thousands of bamboos tall and straight up, rare and beautiful flower everywhere, and different scenes can be found easily. Professor Chen Congzhou praised it as “the Only Copy in China”. In 2005, as the repair to salt merchant Huang Zhiyun’s house is finished, the grandly garden with a style of traditional Chinese building represents a complete historical appearance in a much all-round way. As the National Important Relics Protection Unit and National AAAA Class Scenic Zone, one of the first 20 key gardens announced by the country and one of the four famous gardens in China, Geyuan Garden is an excellent representative of typical private gardens in south of Yangtze River delta. Officially Geyuan Garden becomes the world cultural heritage in June 2014.