Suzhou Lion Forest Garden 苏州狮子林

We took early in the morning at 7.00am to avoid the traffic jam at Puxi going from Shanghai to Suzhou. The travel was smooth from Pudong to Puxi. Within 30 mins we already reach HongQiao area. However, upon entering the highway from Shanghai to JiangSu border there was a traffic jam. From JiangSu toll plaza to Suzhou the traffic turned to be smooth. The bottleneck seems to be highway from Shanghai to JiangSu toll mainly because of the highway road works.

We reached Suzhou city at around 9.00am but it took us another 30-40 mins before our driver is able to find the place where we want to go. The first attraction that we visited was the Lion Forest Garden 狮子林. It's website is at: http://www.szszl.com/

Garden Map

Entrance fee is RMB30 per adult. Children below 1.2m height is free.

Entrance ticket front and back

Found this free guide booklet for this garden. Seems like gardens in Suzhou is highly publicized.

Guide booklet to 狮子林

We were amazed to find lots of tourists at this place. There were tour buses everywhere at the entrance and one after another tour leader with flag brought group of 10-20 tourists. They started to explain and decribe the historical relic and it's story. Normally places we went in Shanghai were not as crowded as this place. I think mainly because all the places or attraction in Suzhou is quite commercialized. Also mainly because it is the first day of the National Day holiday and people from oversea is also coming here for tour during this end Sept and Oct month due to the autumn cooling weather good for touring.

Front entrance of this garden

Lion Forest Garden has a prominent part for series of man-made mountains with various buildings around the lake ,and an artificial waterfall and cliffs at the edge of the lake on the west. Remains of the 14th century man-made mountains,covering 1,152 sq.m.and being the largest of all at Suzhou,can be still seen today.Noted for its labyrinthine mountains with winding pathways and caverns,old pines and cypress trees,awesome peaks and jogged rocks of grotesque shapes resembling dancing lions with striking and unusual poses,it possesses with pride the true delights of mountain and forest scenery in limited space with a flavor of Zen Buddhism.

We entered the Entrance hall 门厅 which is the main doorway into the garden.

Statues on the roof

The we came to the Hall of Peace and Happiness 燕誉堂, one of the principal buildings in the garden,is a master-piece of typical mandarin ducks'hall at Suzhou.

Hall of Peace and Happiness 燕誉堂

Next, we arrived at the room for Bowing to the Peak and Pointing to the Cypress 揖峰指柏轩.

The phrase of "Zhibai" originated from the allusion of "Zhaozhou Zhibai" in Zen Buddhism. "Hall of Bowing to the Peak and Pointing to the Cypress" also took the poem line of "I bow to the Lushan Mountain in front of me while the single beautiful peak stands all by itself" “前揖庐山，一峰独秀” by Zhu Xi of the Song Dynasty, and the conception of "Not Answer sing the questions when people arrive, I point to the cypress with a smile" “人来问不应，笑指庭前柏” of Gao Qi of the Ming Dynasty, displaying the deep love of scholars for wild mountains, forests and springs, and bringing out the feature of scenery appreciation.

指柏轩

Reputed as the 'Kingdom of Rockery', the rocks were piled up skillfully and ingeniously, and most of them look like lions in different postures and verves: playing, roaring, fighting, sleeping, or even dancing. It is said that looking north from Small Square Hall (Xiaofangting), one can see nine stone lions standing in a row and that is the Nine-Lion Peak.

Small Square Hall 小方厅

The Garden of Five Age Old Pines 古五松园.

Divided in halves, the northern half of the hall differs from the southern half in many particular aspects ,such as beam-framing systems,furnishings,pavements,carvings,window designs and so forth. The Lion Forest Garden boasts 22 buildings of varied types, 25tablets and plateaux,71steles inscribed with the famous Calligraphy Collection of the Listening to Rain Tower,23 brick carvings,5 carved wooden screens,and 13 valuable old trees such as gingo biloba L.,pinus bungeana Zucc,etc.,which fall into 5 catalogues.

Assorted views of this garden

One uniqueness of this garden is its rock and stone formation. Once you enter this rock formation, it is like a maze. There are stone steps that lead up and down the rock formation. There are even tunnels that maze around. To reach from one place of the garden to another, one would need to pass through this stone maze. I guess the owner of this garden really knows how to design the garden.

Notice the clear "Blue" sky

Carefully designed, the east part of the garden is decorated with many rockeries while the west part is covered by a vast body of water. The main structures are to the north, with the pavilions and halls all connected to one another by long galleries. Up and down, turning and twisting, these galleries are well-known for their unique format.

Capture some panorama photo of this magnificent garden with rocks and pond.

Panorama View #1

Panorama View #2

In 1765 AD, the Qing emperor Qian Long visited this famous lion garden, and bestowed upon it the "Zhengqu" inscribed name board. The owner of the garden built a special pavilion to match the board, which is commonly called the Zhengqu Pavilion 真趣亭 or pavilion of True Charm.

The Zhengqu Pavilion was built during the Qing Dynasty and employs a Chinese round ridge roof and him and gable structure. It incorporates features of the Yuanyang (Mandarin Ducks), Simian (Four Faces) and Shamao (Gauze Hats) pavilions. The carving is particularly fine and the decoration is in an imperial style. The carving on the six screen in the pavilion are the work of an anonymous Qing artist of outstanding ability.

With painted patterns and beam carvings and looking splendid in green and gold,the True Delight Pavilion in the royal style with the "True Delight "tablet inscribed by the Qing Emperor Qianlong is a main viewing place in the garden and differs from the other plain and elegant gardens of Suzhou.

The garden owner built this stone boat 石舫 by imitating the stone boat of Summer Palace in Beijing for the purpose of having a transition for the waterside "Tower of Hidden Fragrance and Thin Shadow" 暗香疏影楼 and displaying the sense of level in architecture.

Stone Boat 石舫

At last we came to the exit of this garden. Overall it was a wonderful experience at this garden especially with the huge numbers of rock formation not found in other places.

Garden Exit