Lion Grove Garden | Lion Forest Garden

Lion Grove Garden (狮子林 in chinese) is perhaps the most interesting garden in Suzhou. It is the vast area of rock maze that makes the garden unique rather than elegant pavilions, bridges, plants, lakes, corridors and the like, which are quite common in all the Suzhou classic gardens. As a result, the garden is also nicknamed the realm of rock. Visitors will have a great time snaking inside thousands of caves of the rock maze. Besides, it's fun to watch others hide-and-seek around the maze. There is a 2-story pavilion above the rock that gives a good view point of both people wandering around in the maze and the unbelievable silhouettes of the rock.

This rock garden was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in the year 2000. It is one of the nine Classical Gardens of Suzhou on the UNESCO list. Built about 1342 during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) by a group of Zen Buddhist monks, it's the eldest garden among the array of Suzhou gardens.

Lion Grove Garden seems to be the only garden in Suzhou that has received the utmost honour from the ancient emperor. A big plaque, which crowns the central True Delight Pavilion (Zhen Qu Ting) in the garden, acts as the statement of how much the Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (whose reign was from the year 1735 to 1795)took delight in the adorable garden. The emperor regarded Lion Grove Garden the must-see attractions everytime he came visit Suzhou from the capital city Beijing. In 1765, he wrote the pavilion's plaque.

Apart from the rock maze, Lion Grove Garden boasts elaborate stone boat and colorful room windows. It's from every prospective exquisite, cute and interesting.

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