The Humble Administrator's Garden

---

On Saturday, 5-16, we took a tour of the Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou, one of the top four gardens in China. The azaleas were finished blooming, and the Lotus hadn't started yet, but it was still very beautiful! We had a guide named Danny who was fantastic. He spoke very good English and made everything very entertaining, not just dry facts. The Gardens are 500 years old and cover almost 13 acres. The four main elements of an ancient Chinese garden are the water, rocks, plants and buildings, and this garden had plenty of them all!

He started the tour by explaining that Chinese painters were the ones who designed the ancient gardens, so he said to pretend we were walking through a 3-D painting! What a neat idea!

---

Photos

Beginning of tour
Danny, the tour guide in the hat, Hei, our host in the green t-shirt

Distant Temple
The garden was designed to have this view of a distant temple

Two Coins design in walkway
This was to represent the money it took to build the garden

crane in walkway
Cranes are a symbol of longevity

Leah
She loved climbing all of the rocks!

Painting
This is supposedly China's cassanova - Tang Buo Hu of the Ming Dynasty.

The Hall of 36 Pairs of Mandarin Ducks
This is where the emperor would sit to watch opera performed

Bat in walkway
Bats are good luck symbols in China

Comments

[carol welch]

Chinese Katelin. lol *thumbsup* I noticed Linda in the background of one of Leah's celebrity pics. BEAUTIFUL photos. What a wonderful, awesom experience!! I'm gonna get me a crane! xoxo ~carol

[covemom]

Longevity for Carol!
I'll look for a crane to bring you back!