Yu Garden

Yu Garden also known as the Yu Yuan Garden, located at No. 132. Anren Street in the center of the Old City next to the Chenghuangmiao area in Shanghai, China, is considered one of the most lavish and finest Chinese gardens in the region. The garden is accessible from the nearby Yuyuan Garden station on the Shanghai Metro.

Yu Garden was first established in 1559 as a private garden created by Pan Yunduan, who spent almost 20 years building a garden to please his father Pan En, a high-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty, during his father's old age. Over the years, the gardens fell into disrepair until about 1760 when bought by merchants, before suffering extensive damage in the 19th century. In 1842, during the Opium Wars, the British army occupied the Town God Temple for five days. During the Taiping Rebellion the gardens were occupied by imperial troops, and damaged again by the Japanese in 1942. They were repaired by the Shanghai government from 1956-1961, opened to the public in 1961, and declared a national monument in 1982.

Today,Yu Garden occupies an area of 2 hectares (5 acres), and is divided into six general areas laid out in the Suzhou style:

Grand Rockery in Yu Garden - rockery made of huangshi stone (12 m high), featuring peaks, cliffs, winding caves and gorges. This scenery was possibly created by Zhang Nanyang in the Ming Dynasty. This area also contains the Sansui (Three Corn Ears) Hall.

Heralding Spring Hall (Dianchun) in Yu Garden - built in 1820, the first year of the Emperor Daoguang's reign. From September 1853 to February 1855, it served as the base of the Small Swords Society (Xiaodao Hui).

Inner Garden in Yu Garden - rockeries, ponds, pavilions, and towers, first laid out in 1709 and more recently recreated in 1956 by combining its east and west gardens.

Jade Magnificence Hall (Yuhua) in Yu Garden - furnished with rosewood pieces from the Ming Dynasty.

Lotus Pool in Yu Garden - with a zigzag bridge and mid-lake pavilion.

Ten Thousand-Flower Tower (Wanhua) Garden areas are separated by "dragon walls" with undulating gray tiled ridges, each terminating in a dragon's head.

Many visitors head straight for the Five-Dragon Wall in Yu Garden, a bounding monument to the storied mythical creature. The original design had each of the dragons with a total of five claws - legend has it that when the wall was first completed, during the reign of the Qing dynasty the feudal ruler regarded the fifth claw as a sign of unmitigated irreverence, since all the royal palaces featured four claw dragons. He then cut one of the claws of each dragon.

Yu Garden Tour

The Yu Gardens of China are one of the country's most popular natural landmarks, even going so far to being labeled "an architectural miracle in the region south of Yangtze River".