Yu Yuan Garden
Yu Yuan Garden in Shanghai is China's private classic garden. The word Yuan literally means Garden of Happiness. This garden is located in the very center of the old city in Shanghai, a few blocks south of the Bund embankment. The total area of the garden is about two hectares. On its territory there are more than 40 attractions. Both the internal and external gardens were built in the classical style of the era of the reign of the Ming dynasty ( 1368-1644 ). There are many rocky places, trees, ponds, passages, walls having dragon lines, winding bridges that separate the various places of the garden and pavilions.
The first owner of the Yui Yuan Garden in Shanghai, Pan Yunduan, a former treasurer of the province in the Min era, decided to build a garden resembling the imperial garden in Beijing to please parents in old age. Construction, which began in 1559, was stopped or resumed due to lack of money, but was never completed within 20 years. Yunduan's father, former Punishment Minister Pan Enm, did not live to see the moment when the garden was finished. Moreover, the owner of the garden went bankrupt, and the descendants wanted to sell it to the brainchild. There were merchants who willingly bought Yui Yuan at a low price. Later, the garden was included in the Temple of the patron God of the City. Part Yu Yuan, known as the Inner Garden, was completed in 1709.
Over the next 4 centuries, the park either gradually fell into decay or suffered as a result of hostilities. In 1760, merchants acquired the park and rebuilt; the park suffered during the opium war in 1842 and in 1942, when the Japanese were in the city, and in 1853. one of the pavilions of the park became the headquarters of the Tipinsky uprising. In 1956. The park began to restore and it was open to visitors from 1961. And in 1987, the park was finally restored and began to look like it was several hundred years ago.
After the restoration, all the features of the park with its artificial slides, pavilions, ponds, arbors, bridges, open terraces were preserved, which are surprisingly tastefully inscribed in the surrounding landscape. In the park there are more than 40 picturesque places and attractions, special attention is attracted to passages in the walls – they are made in a bizarre - diverse form and do not repeat each other, as well as the dragon, located at the top of one of the walls. A legend is associated with this dragon: in ancient China, only the emperor could use the image of the dragon, while others could be executed for this. To avoid punishment, Pan Duan portrayed a dragon with a toad near his mouth. The dragon symbolized the emperor, and the toad – Pan Duan himself, ready to serve the emperor « not sparing his belly ». The Garden also houses the Church of the City Gods, who were supposed to guard the peace and tranquility of Shanghai. Dated by the era of Min, this temple complex once kept a statue of God - the patron saint of Schanhai and occupied a territory equal to the area of the modern bazaar. From the whole complex, a small and very interesting restored temple has been preserved, which is very popular among tourists. One of the main attractions of Yu Yuan Garden is the Magnificent Rock of Jade. This is a large porous 5-ton rock of bizarre shape, which is said to have been brought here from Lake Taihu in the town of Usi, Jiangsu Province. This stone has a wrinkled surface and a slender shape. It seems to be passing the light. In some places, due to the action of water at the time when the stone was on the lake, holes formed in it. One legend says that when a stone was found about 1000 years ago, it belonged to the originally private collection of Emperor Huizong in the era of the reign of the Song Dynasty ( 960 - 1279 ), and only after some time was delivered to the Yui Yuan Garden.
Around the garden there are many shops where you can purchase traditional Chinese goods, as well as gold and jewelry. The park is open until 5 p.m. If possible, it’s better not to go to the park on weekends – there are too many people.
