Shanghai Guhua Park 上海奉贤区南桥古华园

Today we went to the southern part of Pudong to a place in the Fenxian District 奉贤区. This is a free entry park called Guhua Park 古华园 on the outskirts of Shanghai in Nanqiao Town. The park has a few entrances. There are 4 parks in Shanghai that starts with the word "古", this is one of them.

Main entrance to the park

Guhua Park, a delightful and well-planned park, designed by Chen Congzhou, a famous Chinese architecture master. The park covers more than 100,000 square meters. This park started construction in 1984 and officially opened in Oct of 1986. From March of 2005, the park was declared free to public.

Guide map of the park

We went in the park through the small South-East gate. Here there is a bridge and pond with people boating on it.

In the middle of the lake, there is a bridge with 2 pavilions in the center.

Next we came to the Taiping stage. This is an opera stage.

After some walking distance, we finally came to the main attraction, the memorial grave of three ladies 三女岗. This memorial was constructed according to the legend of "King Wu buried his daughters"吴王葬三女. There were a series of wars between kingdom Wu and kingdom Yue in Chunqiu Dynasty. Once in 492 B.C. Yue was defected in the war. Goujian, the king of Yue became a captive suffering the humiliation. He licked a bitter gallbladder hanging from the ceiling everyday in order to remind him of revenge. He finally won over Fuchai, the king of Wu in 478 B.C. Fuchai buried his three princesses alive in order to avoid humiliation of being caught by the soldiers of Yue.

King Wu indulged in beauties

King Wu buried his 3 princesses alive (right)

The building was quite eerie, as it was secluded and the rooms are dark.

Many historic buildings such as the First Bridge of Nantang and Xingyuan Garden contribute to the magnificence of the simple and elegant park. The unique design and the buildings featuring the constructions of the Ming and Qing Dynasties distinguish the park in the outskirts of Shanghai.

Many parts of the park

We took refuge in one of the pavilions due to heavy rain. It was quite an experience for us to be in a pavilion during the rain. Tend to give one the feeling that poet had in the olden days. I could see the spattering of rain drop as it hit the lake.

We did not finish exploring at the park due to the heavy rain. Might be we would come back again when the season change. Definitely this is a good place to visit one more time. Overall, it was a peaceful and worthwhile day trip.