Yuyuan Garden----- the Happiness Garden

With a long history of more than 400 years, the Yuyuan Garden, also known as the Yu Garden, is the most celebrated classical Chinese garden in Shanghai. The garden is located to the northeast of the old town, not far from the Bund. The garden is typical of the gardening art south of the Yangtze River and is famed as "an architectural miracle in South China".

Located beside the City God Temple in the northeast of the Old City of Shanghai, Yuyuan Garden was built during the Ming Dynasty (1577), 400 years ago. There is a impressive story about the garden. It is a residential garden built by Pan Yunduan, minister of finance in Sichuan Province during the Ming Dynasty. Pan built the garden to "please his parents and let them enjoy themselves in their late years". In ancient Chinese "Yu" means "pleasing", hence the name of the garden.

The garden was inherited by Zhang Zhaolin, Pan Yunduan's granddaughter's husband, and then passed to different owners. A section was briefly organised by Zhang Shengqu as the "Academy of Purity and Harmony" and the Ling Yuan ("Spirit Park"), today's East Garden, was purchased by a group of local leaders in 1709. A group of merchants renovated the increasingly decrepit grounds in 1760 and in 1780 the West Garden was opened to the general public.

A centerpiece is the Currow ancient stone, a porous 3.3-m, 5-ton boulder. Rumours about its origin include the story that it was meant for the imperial palace in Beijing, but was salvaged after the boat sank off Shanghai.

When you penetrate deeper, it seems you are getting lost in a maze: the landscape seems to wind on forever as the gardens are purposefully designed to distort space and distance. And the elegant wood carving or engraving you come arcoss, are the obvious characteristics of the gardening style of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The more you step inside, the more you get fascinated for Yuyuan Garden, a maze of houses, grottoes, pavilions, lotus ponds, and zigzag bridges crossing streams, a maze in a Chinese way.

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