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Lion Grove Garden

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Lion Grove Garden (Shi Zi Lin) is one of the four famous gardens of the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province. It was originally built in 1342 in the 2nd year of the reign (CE 1341-1368) of Emperor Zhizhen during the Yuan (CE 1279-1368) Dynasty. According to existing records, Shi Zi Lin was built by a prominent monk by the name of Tian Ru together with a group of fellow Zen students in honor of their master, Chan Zhong Feng, primarily as a temple with surrounding garden grounds. It was originally named Bodhi Orthodox School Temple, but was later called the Lion Grove Garden, partly due to the odd shape of many of the garden's Tai Hu stone formations , which suggested lions in various poses, and partly due to the fact that Chan Zhong Feng had once lived in Lion Cave at Tianmu Mountain.*

Covering an area of roughly 1000 sqm, Lion Grove Garden is famous for its unique Tai Hu stone formations, or rockeries. These odd rocks – some boulder-sized – have all been collected from the bottom of Lake Tai, then stacked atop one another to create a maze of nooks, crannies, caverns and peaks (not to forget lion shapes) which, from a distance, give the illusion of mountains in miniaturized format. Specially shaped Tai Hu rocks are given prominent placing, such as those that resemble lions. It is the rockeries that define this garden, and therefore it is no wonder that it is also called the The Rockery Kingdom.

Another equally colorful common name for Lion Grove Garden is "The Eighteen Scenic Spots of Heaven" because of the garden's many rockeries and circuitous pathways which form a veritable maze that the visitor can stroll through. There are many rockeries in Lion Grove Garden such as H Anhui Rockery, Tuyue Rockery, Xuanyu Rockery and Angxia Rockery. But the most famous of them all is of course the Lion Rockery.

The overarchingly important thing to remember about Lion Grove Garden is that it was constructed as a scholar garden, and thus there are many references to Chinese literature, to calligraphy, and in general to the open-mindedness that characterized the Chinese scholar after Confucianism had transformed Chinese society into one where philosophical contemplation went hand in hand with frivolous cavorting, much like it does today on a modern university campus.

Zhenqu Ting (True Delight Pavilion) is inarguably the garden's most magnificent due to its royal design with an inscription authored by Emperor Qianlong himself of the Qing (CE 1644-1911) Dynasty, who visited the garden several times.

Lixue Tang (Standing-in-Snow Hall) gets its name from a story about a zealous Zen Buddhist devotee who stood out in the snow all night in reverence to his master. Wen Mei Ting (Greeting the Plum Blossoms Pavilion) was a venue where painters and poets gathered. In addition to the plum trees that surround the pavilion, images of plum blossoms are carved into the pavilion's furniture, while other plum blosssom representations are painted onto various of the pavilion's utensils.

Yifeng Zhibo Xuan (Bowing-to-Peaks-and-Pointing-to-the-Cypress Veranda) is a veranda, or salon, used by one of the garden's former owners to entertain friends, relatives, and more formal guests. "Zhibo" (Pointing-to-the-Cypress) refers to a line from a poem by Gao Qi (CE 1336-1374) of the Ming (CE 1368-1644) Dynasty: 'Instead of greeting his guest, [the host] smiles and points at a cypress before the hall'. "Yifeng" refers to a line from a poem by Zhu Xi (CE 1130-1200): "Bowing to Lushan, a peak of unique charm."

The names of most of the garden's other buildings – whose shapes come in infinite varieties, conforming only to the space they have been chosen to occupy – also represent literary allusions. Some examples are Asking Plum Pavilion, Five Ancient Pines Garden, Sleeping Clouds Chamber, Small Square Hall and Water Lily Hall.

Lion Grove Garden also houses many rare and precious plaques, steles and paintings, including the paintings Panoramic View by Ni Yunlin and Twelve Scenic Spots in Lion Grove Garden by Xu Ben, both renowned artists from the Ming Dynasty period. More than sixty rare rubbings of inscriptions of the works of famous calligraphers from the Song (CE 960-1279) Dynasty – such as Sushi, Huang Tingjian, Mifu, and Cai Xian gare – are to be found on the walls of the passageways of Lion Grove Garden.

Lion Grove Garden is a unique experience for visitors of all kinds, as its funny-looking stone formations will delight children (of all ages) while for the more serious-minded, the garden's philosophical background – embracing the lofty as well as the mundane – will provide a glimpse into the Chinese psyche.


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* The grotesquely shaped stones of Lion Grove Garden were hoisted up from the bottom of Lake Tai. They are of sandstone, which erodes unpredictably. As rainwater soaks into soil, it combines with carbon dioxide to form mildly acidic carbonic acid. This carbonic acid finds its way into the cracks and crevices of limestone, where present, eating away at the limestone in completely random, Swiss-cheese-like patterns, but eventually enlarging the holes and even forming caverns in boulder-sized, sub-surface rocks. Alas, many of the "lion" stones of Lion Grove Garden no longer resemble lions, because the sandtone continues to erode.

Edition HistoryEditLocation:

it is located on No.23 Garden Road, Suzhou City.

Edition HistoryEditTicket Price:

20 Yuan in low season and 30 Yuan in peak season.

Edition HistoryEdit Opening Time:

Opening time: 8：00—17：30

Edition HistoryEdit How to get there:

Tourists can take No.1, No.2 or No.5 touring bus, No.202 (former No.2), No.204 (former No.4 bus), No.23, No.549 (former No.29 bus), No.40, No.78, No.301 and No.305 bus to Lion Grove Garden. You can visit Suzhou Folk Custom Museum at the same time and go to Humble Administrator's Garden after walking one hundred meters southwards along Garden Road.

Edition HistoryEdit Tips:

Flower exhibition is held in Lion Grove Garden in spring and autumn every year. In spring, the major flowers: narcissus, plum, wintersweet and winter jasmine, pine bonsai, bamboo bonsai, plum bonsai and some beautiful flower arrangement are exhibited. Senior flower and plant technicians make these bonsais, so you can fully understand the spirit of Su bonsai when viewing and admiring. During autumn more than 20 varieties and 2000 pots of chrysanthemum are exhibited. There are five categories of chrysanthemums: Duben chrysanthemum, Dutou chrysanthemum, Yishu chrysanthemum, Antou chrysanthemum and Pudi chrysanthemum.