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About Baomo Garden
Baomo Garden (宝墨园) is a Lingnan-style (岭南) garden in Zini Village (紫坭村), Shawan Town (沙湾镇), in Guangzhou's Panyu District (番禺区). It sits next to a sister garden, Nanyue Yuan (南粤苑).
The garden grew out of a shrine: the Bao Xiangfu Temple (包相府庙), founded in the Jiaqing (嘉庆) reign of the Qing dynasty to honour Bao Zheng (包拯, 999–1062), the Northern Song official remembered as a model of incorruptible government. Late in the Qing, people of Zini planted trees, dug ponds and piled up artificial hills around the temple on five mu of land, creating the first park in the area.
The name, glossed in English as "Bao Zheng's Inkstone Garden", recalls a tale of Bao Zheng stopping officials from squeezing inkstone makers for far more stones than the imperial tribute required and pocketing the surplus.
The old garden was later destroyed, and rebuilding started in 1995 with a five-mu first phase finished in 1996; donations then paid for four major expansions, and the garden now covers 168 mu. Today it is run as a theme park built around Lingnan garden design, with ponds, bridges, pavilions and rockwork alongside its halls. Film and television crews have used it as a location, among them for The Last Imperial Doctor (末代御医).
What to look for
- Baomo Hall (宝墨堂), the garden's namesake hall
- Jubao Pavilion (聚宝阁) and the viewing tower (观景楼)
- Longtu Hall (龙图馆); Bao Zheng held the title Grand Academician of the Longtu Pavilion (龙图阁大学士)
- The Zhao Tailai collection gallery (赵泰来藏品馆)
- The Zidong boat (紫洞舫)
- A porcelain relief of Along the River During the Qingming Festival (清明上河图), listed by the Shanghai Great World Guinness records (上海大世界基尼斯)
- The giant brick carving Tuyan Heming Wall (吐艳和鸣壁)
Location & getting there
Getting to Baomo Garden
- Search for 宝墨园 with 广州市 and 番禺区.
Find Baomo Garden
宝墨园 · 番禺区
No reliable map pin yet: search by the Chinese name.
Sources & visit information
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Opening hours, admission and access arrangements are not covered; confirm current visitor information with the site.
Some facts checked against Wikipedia contributors, "宝墨园" · CC BY-SA 4.0.
Some facts checked against Wikipedia contributors, "Baomo Yuan" · CC BY-SA 4.0.