The Lingering Garden, Jiangsu, China

4Jenny J 5:00 PM Jan 13, 2020

Do this as part of a day visiting the Tongi Town
A personally wouldn't travel this far from Shanghai just to see the garden but combined with a visit to the Tongli water town we are glad we visited. Lots of nice photo opportunities, though it can get crowded.

5BigSeaWave 5:00 PM Oct 12, 2016

I Will Always Linger in the Lingering Garden
Having lived in Suzhou for nearly 9 years and visited every Suzhou Gardens for at least 3 times, I have to say that Lingering Garden, or Liu Yuan, is my favorite. It is one of the two gardens that I had been to in all four seasons of the year and appreciate the different beauty during each season. The only garden I went to after the snow of 2008 was Lingering Garden and I was not disappointed with the view of a snow covered garden that had its unique beauty. When I was there, the white snow covering everything and some part of the garden was not accessible due to the heavy snow. But, there was a tranquil quietness with so few visitors and plenty of place to walk with the covered corridors. The reason for my love of Lingering Garden was mainly due to the fact that each part of the garden had her unique theme and her unique beauty. Once one enters the main entrance, you will be led to the main garden where it has the typical "mountain", "lake", pavilions, covered corridors, rocks and the main buildings. Some days, there will be musicians playing traditional Suzhou "ping tan", a pair of singers with instruments singing out a story in Suzhou dialect; in one of the pavilions. Or, there will be a lady playing the pipa in one of the boat sailing in the "lake" with someone rowing the boat. It is the kind of things that a Chinese scholar will enjoy and one could really feel how the original owner enjoyed the garden. The singers are treats and should not be expected on a regular basis. However, I seemed to have the most frequent encounters of singers in Lingering Garden than all the other Suzhou gardens. During the fall, just about this time of the year (late September to late October), there is a spot on the left side of the lake where the owner planted the Osmanthus trees. The pavilion is named for the enjoying of the fragrance of Osmanthus. When the Osmanthus is blooming at this time of the year, one gets to enjoy not just the sight but also the sweet fragrance of the Osmanthus flowers. (BTW Osmanthus is the city flower of Suzhou.) I could literally sitting or lingering there for hours to enjoy this multi-sensory delight. From the main garden, one could exit to the part of the garden famous for her tall Taihu rock that was named "Crowned with the Cloud Peak" (Guan Yun Feng). It is a unique slender and beautiful Taihu rock featuring all 4 characters of a good Taihu rock: slender 瘦, leaky 漏 (i.e. water is capable of flowing through), wrinkled 皱, and "through" 透 (i.e. visible holes that one could see through to the other side of the rock.) Besides the rock, the garden around the rock was usually adorned with beautiful flowers. So, one could linger there and enjoy the rock or the flower or both! There are also a few other "lesser" Taihu rocks in this garden. From what I called the rock garden, one could go through the round gate on one side and find yourself in a flower garden that is the most beautiful during late spring and early summer when many of the flowers are blooming. If you love flowers, you could lingering there for quite some time. Or, if you follow the long corridor around the "bamboo forest" to the other side of the rock garden, you will find yourself in a Bonzai garden. If you like rocks and Bonzai, you could lingering there for hours. There is also a corridor that is shaded with grape vines and other climbing plants which gives excellent shade during the hot summer days but don't count on it to cover if it rains. At the other end of the Bonzai garden, there was a narrow passage way between a rock and a wall that seemed to lead to no where. However, if you walk through it, you will find yourself entering another garden with again, "mountain" and pavilion, and many different kinds of trees. The rock that you just passed was the "mountain" of this part of the garden. Instead of a lake, you will find yourself along a man-made "river". Obviously, this "river" may look nothing like the Hudson, Mississippi, or Yangtze river but if you allow your imagination flow and pace along this stream, you do feel the sense of tranquility of walking along a quiet little stream. From this "tree and river" garden, you could find you way to exit or you could back track to all the other parts of the garden to exit. They both take you to the same exit to the street but you would miss the souvenir store if you exit here. The different theme in each "sub"-garden is why Liu Yuan or Lingering Garden is my favorite Suzhou garden. Now that I no longer have Suzhou garden pass and have to pay full price for a visit of any garden, this is always my first choice when I am visiting Suzhou and in the mood to see a garden. Lingering Garden is also within walking distance from Shan Tang Street, albeit a good 20-30 minutes walk crossing a small maze of streets. But with a GPS in the mobile phone, it was not as challenging as it sounds. I have done a one-day tour of walking the Shan Tang in the morning, having lunch in the Shan Tang area and spent the afternoon in Lingering Garden before returning. It was my favorite one-day tour of Suzhou and what I do with friends who only have one day to spend in Suzhou and wants to experience old Suzhou life and Suzhou garden.