Yuyin Garden 余荫山房

About Yuyin Garden

Yuyin Garden (余荫山房) is a Qing-dynasty private garden in Nancun Town (南村镇), Panyu District (番禺区), Guangzhou (广州), built from 1867 to 1871 for the local scholar-official Wu Bin (邬彬).

Wu Bin (1824–1897) was appointed to the Ministry of Justice (刑部) in 1854, left office in 1858, citing his elderly mother, and grew rich in trade at home. In 1867 he passed the provincial examination, and his clan granted him the land left over from building an ancestral hall; he laid out the garden there as a retreat for old age, and it was finished in 1871. Two of his sons later passed the same examination, which gave the village its saying of "three provincial graduates in one household".

The original garden takes up only 1,598 m², faces south and is split by a covered bridge into western and eastern halves, each centred on a pond. Halls, pavilions and a rockery sit around the water so that visitors walk a winding circuit; the official description sums up the approach as "hidden, not revealed" (藏而不露) and "shrinking a dragon to an inch" (缩龙成寸). A couplet at the second gate, written by Wu Bin, describes the garden as "three bow-lengths" of ground where firecracker-vine blossoms fall like red rain. The whole site now covers about 14,000 m², taking in the family ancestral hall, the adjoining Yu Yuan (瑜园) and later additions.

Yuyin Garden is counted with Liang Garden (梁园) in Foshan, Keyuan (可园) in Dongguan and Qinghui Garden (清晖园) in Shunde as the Four Famous Gardens of Guangdong (广东四大名园); its managers describe it as the only one of the four that keeps its original appearance largely intact. The city of Guangzhou protected it in 1983 and the province followed in 1989; in June 2001 it was placed on the national list of protected monuments (全国重点文物保护单位), and in March 2023 it received an AAAA tourist rating.

What to look for

• Huanhong Kualu (浣红跨绿), a 20 m covered bridge combining bridge, gallery and pavilion that divides the "red rain" west half from the "green cloud" east half
• Shenliu Hall (深柳堂), the main reception hall, with sandalwood screens carved with Qing calligraphy including the hand of Liu Yong (刘墉), two large carved screens of pines and cranes and of squirrels and grapes, and 32 peachwood fan paintings
• Linglong Shuixie (玲珑水榭), an octagonal water pavilion with windows on all eight sides and columns of kundian (坤甸木) hardwood
• Wopiao Lu (卧瓢庐), a small guest lodge whose blue-and-white glass windows tint the view outside to look like frost or autumn leaves
• Linchi Villa (临池别馆), Wu Bin's former study facing the square lotus pond, with a low, flat roof suited to typhoon country
• Shanyan Wu Ancestral Hall (善言邬公祠), holding a carved board of three Xianfeng-era imperial edicts honouring Wu Bin's family
• Yu Yuan (瑜园), added in 1922 by Wu Bin's fourth-generation descendant Wu Zhongyu (邬仲瑜), whose two-storey boat hall looks down over the older garden
• Wenchang Pavilion (文昌阁), a 15.4 m octagonal tower in the later Wenchang Yuan (文昌苑) extension that looks like four storeys but has three

Location & getting there

Getting to Yuyin Garden

• Search for 余荫山房 with 广州市 and 番禺区.