Zui Bai Chi Pond 上海松江醉白池

This weekend we have came to explore this city called SongJiang 松江. Songjiang Town is a small town in Songjiang District in Shanghai, in eastern China. The first place we visited was the Zui Bai Chi 醉白池 (Garden of Drunken Poet Bai).

Entrance to Zui Bai Chi 醉白池

Zui Bai Chi Pond is located at the south-west of Song-jiang town in Shanghai. It was built in the period of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty. The entrance ticket is RMB12 per person. Children below 1.2m is free. Thus, Ethan as usual is free.

Entrance Ticket

Zuibaichi is one of the 5 greatest classical gardens of Shanghai. It used to be one of the residences of a painter named Dongqichang in Ming Dynasty for holding parties and meeting artists. During the year 1644-1661 in Qing Dynasty, a local person named Gudasheng reconstructed it in memory of the great poet Baijuyi 百居易 of Tang Dynasty. He got the idea by remembering a very famous poem called "Libai" and named it "Garden of Drunken Poet Bai". Now the inner garden is the original, the outer garden is newly built.

Guide maps are all around to guide visitors

The plot of the gardening takes the pond as its center.The three sides surrounding the pond were winding pavilion and attics.One can enjoy the sight against the railing whether in sunny day or raining day.

The Flower Carve Hall

There is a square pond in the center, surrounded by pavilions, terraces, chambers, waterside pavilions and long corridors. There is also a wall with latticed widows separating the scenic spots of the thatched cottage, the hexagonal pavilion, and four-sided hall and so o­n.

The names of the garden and the pond were given from Su Tongpo's "Zuibai Tan record",the poet's optimism of which was envied by the owner. It was open to public in 1959 after being repaired and extended.

Right in the middle there is a pond. There is an extension of corridor that allows people to walk along the pond and enjoy the beauty of the scenery. We found that the pond is full of lotus - may be due to the fact that now is summer in Shanghai.

Photo on one of the jetty that goes out to the pond

Lotus flower captured in the pond

Lotus, lotus everywhere... What a sight!

Extension of corridor surrounding the pond

Ancient bridge across the pond

The garden has many ancient trees.On the top of the wall in the pavilion,there are a stone carved with "Yunjiebang Yan picture"and more hundred figures in the art,which is exellent.In 1983,it was extended in constructions of "Shanglu Ting"and"Yulan Yuan".

Scenery of the pond

The serenity of pond and also the tree that populated the garden gives a sense and mood of poetry reading and writing. Indeed this is a good place for doing just this.

A huge patch of Bamboo growth near one of the buildings. If give one the feeling of art and how poet of past painted the beauty of bamboo in Chinese painting. Of course for present folks like us, we do not waste the time to actually draw the bamboo. We just shot the bamboo through our Canon G9 12.1Mega Pixal digital camera.

This garden is quite a big place and it took us quite some time to explore the attractions. There are various path leading to the pond, the pavilion, old building, garden, bamboo growth, ancient trees, etc.

Our exploration took us to one of the rock tunnel. Beyond the rock tunnel, we found a nice garden. The is a stone carving of 十鹿九回斗 "ten deers nine turn head" which means that nine people out of ten would want to go back to their homeland. Deer here is used to describe to a man.

Rock tunnel lead to paradise

The 十鹿九回斗 stone carving

Window pane that show the garden on the other side

Full round shaped doorway

Weird shaped window panes

Round door with 对联

“梅逢瑞雪梅更白
雪伴寒梅雪亦香“

More shapes of window

Observed the cloud shape window - owner is poker fan?

We came to a building whereby there was an exhibition of Chinese paintings. Right in the middle of the courtyard, there is a statue of 董其昌. Dong Qichang, courtesy name Xuanzai (玄宰), was a Chinese painter, scholar, calligrapher, and art theorist of the later period of the Ming Dynasty.

Dong Qichang was the son of a teacher and somewhat precocious as a child. At 12 he passed the prefectural civil service examination and won a coveted spot at the prefectural Government school. He first took the imperial civil service exam at seventeen, but placed second to a cousin because his calligraphy was clumsy. This led him to train until he became a noted calligrapher. Once this occurred he rose up the ranks of the imperial service passing the highest level at the age of 35.

Stone calligraphy

By the pavilion and have a short rest at stone seats

A portion of the garden adjoining the Dong Qichang courtyard was still undergoing renovation and restoration. We noticed that the is quite a lot of restoration and maintenance activities going on. We moved on to find ourselves in a place where there is a fountained pond in the middle and a temple like building surrounding it.

Weird roof design of the building

Smaller lotus in the pond - carps too

Cute stone lions guarding the building - left and right

The building is called Plum Blossom Hall 雪海堂. It is a kind of museum which showcase some photos of Sun Yat Sen and from the description mentioned like Yat Sen visit to SongJiang in the past. Red tapes barred the chairs and tables in the middle of this hall. Probably they are used for official visitors to sit in the past.

Chairs and table for officials to sit on

The chair and table in the middle

1912年孙中山视察松江清华女校时与师生合影

After this Plum Blossom Hall, we headed out of Zui Bai Pong through the way we came in. Passing through once again the bamboo patch, square pond, ancient bridge, pathway with trees at both sides.

Indeed this is a great experience to be able to enjoy the serenity of this pond and garden.