Chinese gardens are not your typical community park. You know, a space carved out in a city that has a green space with trails and maybe a playground, a sport court, and a little pond. Chinese gardens, in their purest form, are actually residences of ancient days. Because construction of days past included wood, and the weather conditions where very dry, each room of a home was built independently. A home would be a collection of little buildings connected by walkways. Why would they do that? To protect from total destruction should there be a fire. They might lose the reception room, or building, but everything else would remain intact and reconstruction would be minimal. The very wealthy turned the grounds in-between the buildings into lush gardens with water, coy fish, jade rock sculptures and secret passages. It became an extension of the home and life was lived in the garden.
One of the most famous of Chinese Gardens is Yuyuan (pronounced “You”) Garden in Shanghai. The character set for this park means “The Garden of Happiness”! It is a gorgeous 5 acre Ming Dynasty garden and residence that was built in 1559 by Pan Yunduan for his aging father to enjoy. It was the largest and most grand garden of its era in Shanghai but it’s expense eventually helped to ruin the family. It transferred hands several times before ultimately landing with a group of merchants that renovated the grounds and opened it to the public. The gardens possess several buildings, rockeries, ponds filled with coy fish, bridges and the famous Jade rock. Cost for entrance is minimal at about 40 yuan.
Just outside of the paid portion of the garden is the Yuyuan Tea House. After 4:30 pm you can enjoy live authentic Chinese music to sip your exotic tea selection by. I found it an “authentic moment” in experiencing Chinese culture. And remember those merchants that renovated the gardens? They didn’t stop with the renovation, those brilliant merchants then built an old world market adjacent to the gardens called Yuyuan Bazaar. They did a wonderful job building the market it a way that honors the history of the region as well as the gardens. It’s now one of my favorite places to shop for souvenirs when I visit.
This area makes for a great day of sight-seeing in not only visiting the Gardens, the Tea House and the Market, but the City of God temple is located just off the market and the Old City of Shanghai is a walkable distance from the gardens as well. Yes, it will be busy, but it’s well worth the intrusion of your personal space. Hey, that’s part n parcel to the Asian experience anyway!
