Lingering Garden

Covering an area of 23,310 square meters, the Lingering Garden is the best garden in Suzhou. It is renowned for the artistic way in which the spaces between various kinds of architectural forms are dealt with.

The garden is separated into the eastern, central, northern and western parts. The central part features a man-made mountain and lakeside scene, resembling a long scroll of traditional Chinese painting. The eastern part is noted for its joyous groupings of garden courts and elegant buildings, the western part for the enchantment of woody hills, and the northern part for cottages with bamboo fences and idyllic scenes.

The number of stelea in the Lingering Garden has never been surpassed by any other garden in Suzhou. Masterfully inscribed with the works of over 100 calligraphers in the Jin, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, these priceless stelea illustrate the evolutionary course of Chinese calligraphy during the past 1,000 years.

Lingering Garden is characteristic of the classical gardens in the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze region and in 1961 it was listed as a cultural relic of national importance.