dulemba: Yu Garden

As I wrote in an earlier post, Yu Garden or Yuyuan Garden or Garden of Happiness was first built in 1559 during the Ming Dynasty by Pan Yunduan as a comfort for his father, the minister Pan En, in his old age. I'm so glad he did - it was just breathtaking.
The entrance was quite crowded, but I believe the large stone might have been Jade and basically says "Yu Garden" on it.

The gate itself was impressive. Supposedly, the higher a threshold you have to step over to get into a place, the higher the owner was in the social hierarchy.

So you literally step into a garden like this. I need to just let you walk around soaking in the images for a sec, like I did...

The pagodas were also amazing.

Things that stood out to me were the stories that unfolded on the roofs.

And the cobbles. Apparently designs were specific to certain families, only that particular family was allowed to do this design of stones.

There were carvings and ancient writings on walls (that I didn't get a picture of, sadly) that were revealed behind plexiglass.

Scenes of the garden were framed by intricate windows and doorways.

What I found most ironic was that some of the path made me feel like I was in Rock City - but without the kitsch. There was even an equivalent to the "Fat Man's Squeeze"!