★ Tourist location: West Garden of Suzhou Humble Administrator's Garden

After passing through the circular door of the unique cave, you will find the West Garden. It was originally called Buyuan and covers an area of 12.5 acres. Because it was greatly renovated by the later owner of the garden, the style is mainly based on craftsmanship formed after Qianlong, but the water and stone landscape can still be inherited from the Central Garden Scenic Area.

To the left there is a rockery stacked with lakes and stones. On the top of the mountain is a small six-corner pavilion Yiliang Pavilion. The pavilion has long glass windows. It is very simple and elegant, and it looks exquisite. Because the Humble Administrator's Garden was originally divided into three gardens, the owner of the repair garden envied the scenery of the Middle Garden, so he built a pavilion high up there. Although the Middle Garden does not belong to your own family, you can still enjoy the scenery. Bai Juyi wrote in the poem "I want to be adjacent to the Yuan Dynasty, first and foremost":"The bright moon is the same as the three paths of the moon, and the green poplar is suitable for two families of spring." You can still enjoy the garden scenery next door without spending a penny. It is both clever and naughty, and it has become a famous sight in Humble Administrator's Garden.

The Eighteen Mandala Flower Hall and the Thirty-Six Mandarin Duck Hall in the north are a group of buildings. They are also the main building of the West Garden, the Mandarin Duck Hall, a classic architectural form in ancient gardens. The plaques in these two halls were inscribed by Lu Runxiang and Hong Jun, two top scholars in Suzhou. This specification is really high.

Mandala flower is an alias for camellia. Although the flower in Humble Administrator's Garden is not a lotus flower, there are still few people directly using other flower names as the names of buildings. It is said that the original location of Humble Administrator's Garden is related to camellia. Wang Xianchen likes camellia flowers invading the land and creating gardens. Since there is the number of "eighteen" in front, there were probably eighteen famous camellia trees when the garden was built, or the best "eighteen scholars" among camellia trees were planted. Wu Weiye and Chen Weisong, literati of the early Qing Dynasty, both praised the camellia here, saying that they were "intertwined and reflected in the sunset", which was more than just one or two plants.

The North Hall is named after thirty-six pairs of mandarin ducks were once raised in Linchi. The roof is arched and consists of two sloping hard mountain tops in the middle and four pointed conical roofs. It is beautiful and unique, but also can be used to reflect sound and enhance the sound effect. Back then, the owner of the garden banquets, receives guests, listens to music and has a rest here. This small life makes people wish they could travel to the Ming and Qing Dynasties immediately to enjoy it.

Walking along the river to the southernmost tip, there is a tower and shadow pavilion. It is octagonal shaped and built on the water. There is a very classical corridor on the bank. I was very puzzled, because I stood in the pavilion and turned around, but I didn't see where the shadow of the tower was. Later, when I came to Liuting Pavilion and looked back, I realized that looking at the Tower Shadow Tower here was the correct perspective. The Zanjian Eight Corner Pavilion reflected in the water, really like a pagoda. To make a pavilion so exquisitely and skillfully, how careful the owner must have been when building this garden. This pavilion is a relatively remote place, and there is a museum across the wall.

The location of Liuting Pavilion is at the westernmost end of the entire garden, taking the meaning of Li Shangyin's famous sentence,"The autumn shade does not disperse and the frost flies late, but the residual lotus leaves are left to listen to the sound of the rain." The small pavilion has a single floor, windows are opened on all sides, and a platform is in front of the pavilion. There are three-dimensional pine, bamboo, plum and magpie flying covers carved from ginkgo wood in the Qing Dynasty. The two patterns of the Three Friends of the Cold Year and the Magpie Climbing Plum are cleverly blended together. They are also a rare masterpiece among the garden flying covers. This is a great place to enjoy the scenery of the West Garden. You can not only see the Tower Shadow Pavilion, but also the Yuanyang Hall opposite.

Fucui Pavilion is located at the highest point of the West Garden. It is built on an actually low hill and has an octagonal double-decker building. The trees are dense on the mountain, and the buildings seem to float on a green shade. Su Shi once wrote in a poem: "The three peaks have passed the sky and the floating green, and the four rows look at the sunshine door", hence the name Fucui.

The inverted studio is divided into two floors. Downstairs is the "Bai Wen Yi Shen Zhi Zhai". The Bai Wen Yi Shen Yi Shen refers to Wen Zhengming and Shen Zhou. Although Wen is relatively famous and ranks among the four great talents, Shen Zhou is actually Wen's teacher. In order to express his admiration, Zhang Lvqian, the owner of the West Garden at that time, built this building in the 20th year of Guangxu to commemorate it. Since the building is named "Reflection", the reflection of this small building is naturally very beautiful.

Sitting with Who is a pavilion, which is very unique and has been built into the shape of a folding fan. Su Shi has a poem,"Sitting on a Hu bed leisurely, there are thousands of flowers outside the Yu Gong Building, who are you sitting with? The bright moon and the breeze are me." Hence the name. The pavilion is built along the water. The plan shape is fan shaped. The roof, pavilion door, window hole, stone table, stone bench, enclosure roof, lampshade, wall plaque, and half column are all fan shaped, hence it is also called fan pavilion. There is another explanation as to why this pavilion was built in the shape of a fan. Zhang Luqian, the owner of the Buyuan, carefully built this fan table pavilion in order to commemorate the history of his ancestors making fans. The title is official script and the inscription is "Feng Sheng Yao Mengqi". This master calligraphy master from Wu County, his deepest attainments are not official script, but regular script. Later generations have commented that he is a "person who writes regular script to the extreme."

The Li Pavilion is on the earth mountain behind the fan pavilion, and the top slope is relatively gentle, like a reed hat. This pavilion can be seen from a distance. It is said that it is matched with who you are sitting with to form a complete fan. But I turned around and didn't seem to find the right angle.

The wavy corridor is the water corridor at the junction of the West Garden and the Middle Garden. From a plan view, it is L-shaped around the pool and is divided into two sections and built next to the water. The southern section ends from the entrance of the unique cave to the 36 Yuanyang Pavilion; the northern section ends at the Reflecting Tower, which is suspended on the water.

From the West Garden, there is also a Jianshan Building in the north of the waters of the Middle Garden. Even though we have gone back, we still missed this scenic spot in the Central Garden. Our sense of direction is really poor.

Jianshanlou is surrounded by water on three sides and is surrounded by mountains on both sides. It is a civilian-style building in the Jiangnan style, with heavy eaves and rolling sheds resting on the top of the mountain. The ground floor is also called Lotus Root Fragrance Pavilion, and groups of koi can be seen on the outer corridor along the water. Going upstairs you have to pass through a climbing gallery or rockery stone steps, originally called Mengyin Building. Legend has it that this was once the office of King Li Xiucheng, the loyal king. For King Zhong, who had made illustrious military achievements in the Taiping Rebellion, Mengyin obviously did not meet his aspirations, so he changed his name to Jianshanlou. In fact, the meaning is not too different. Tao Yuanming "picks chrysanthemums under the east fence and leisurely sees Nanshan Mountain" was originally a secluded life.

It was getting late, and although I couldn't help but end the tour. I thought I had done some homework before entering the park, but only after I actually visited the park did I realize that it was not enough. It can only be said that I have visited the entire garden, but only the places marked with names on the map. In fact, I have not yet truly appreciated the beauty of this Humble Administrator's Garden, the "mother of gardens".

Humble Administrator's Garden is famous for its water, scattered courtyards, excellent forests, and the techniques of borrowing scenery are also used in many places. One of the reasons why no high-rise buildings are built in Suzhou is to borrow scenery from the gardens in the city. From the East Garden, you can also see the Tiger Hill Tower from an angle. In fact, the two places are not very close. As long as there are a few high-rise buildings in the middle, it is impossible to borrow a view of the Tiger Hill Pagoda. Many buildings in the Humble Administrator's Garden can also be seen in other gardens, but there is no such thing as the Humble Administrator's Garden. Perhaps when those gardens were built, they drew on some of the architectural styles of the Humble Administrator's Garden. These wonderful points need to be tasted carefully and carefully. To be honest, one trip to the Humble Administrator's Garden is not enough, so I feel sorry for the tourists who still enter the garden at 4 p.m.. Tickets to the Humble Administrator's Garden are not cheap. Such a quick visit really fails to live up to this famous garden. It is not enough to visit Humble Administrator's Garden once, but if you want to come and go often, your not full wallet really can't support it. I am sad.