Liyuan Garden 蠡园

About Liyuan Garden

Liyuan Garden (蠡园) is a lakeside garden in Binhu District (滨湖区), Wuxi (无锡), Jiangsu, rated a national AAAA scenic area, set on the northern bank of Li Lake (蠡湖). Its pavilions, long corridor and willow embankment are laid out along the water.

The garden takes its name from the lake, and the lake from Fan Li (范蠡), a minister of the state of Yue in the Spring and Autumn period. Legend holds that after helping the king of Yue destroy the state of Wu, he came here with Xi Shi (西施), boating on the water and living in retreat. Xinhua's Jiangsu channel gives the garden an area of 5.2 hectares, of which 2.2 hectares are water.

The site's garden history starts in the early Republican years, when Yu Xunzhen (虞循真) of Qingqi village (青祁村) laid out a set of eight scenes, the Eight Views of Qingqi (青祁八景), with names such as Fragrant Snow at Plum Wharf (梅埠香雪). Between 1927 and 1936 a father and son from the same village, the businessmen Wang Yuqing (王禹卿) and Wang Kangyuan (王亢元), built Liyuan on that base. In 1930 Chen Meifang (陈梅芳), a Wang relative who had grown rich in Shanghai, added a second garden on its western side, Yuzhuang (渔庄), also called 'Rival of Liyuan' (赛蠡园). In 1952 the two were joined and opened as a public park, the Liyuan corridor being lengthened by roughly 200 m to reach Yuzhuang. Since 2002 Liyuan and Yuzhuang have been listed together as a Jiangsu provincial protected heritage site.

A rockery sits at the centre of the garden. The west side has a long lakeside embankment and the Four Seasons Pavilions (四季亭), put up in 1954 under yellow roofs on red columns; each is planted with its season's flower: plum, oleander, osmanthus and wintersweet. The east side has a 289 m corridor along the water, a pavilion in the lake and the Cengbo Dieying (层波叠影) area, 'layered waves and overlapping reflections', added in 1982. A water pavilion beside the small Ningchun Pagoda (凝春塔) serves as the garden's emblem.

What to look for

• The Four Seasons Pavilions (四季亭), four yellow-roofed pavilions from 1954, each with its own seasonal flower
• The 289 m waterside corridor on the east side
• The water pavilion and the small Ningchun Pagoda (凝春塔), the garden's emblem
• The central rockery (假山) area
• The lake-centre pavilion (湖心亭) and the Cengbo Dieying (层波叠影) section added in 1982
• Yuzhuang (渔庄), the 1930 garden joined to Liyuan in 1952

Location & getting there

Getting to Liyuan Garden

• Search for 蠡园 with 无锡市 and 滨湖区.