Lingering Garden

Today’s garden was the Lingering Garden, which is touted as one of the 4 most famous gardens in China, and “one of the best in Suzhou”.  We’re not ready to give that title just yet, but it was quite lovely.  As we approached the garden we walked by the parking lot, which held about 15 buses, and 3 more were unloading.  Even though we left the house at 8:45, it was a beautiful sunny day and it looked like many people had the same idea we had to enjoy the weather and a garden.  At first I wanted to bolt when we were stuck in a cue of about 400-500 people crawling along various paths, but we quickly skirted around the tours with guides talking into extremely loud headphones and found some quiet corners of this extensive garden.  The miniature tree area was beautiful, but I believe my favorite today were the “stone mountains”, limestone peaks which were either set on a pedestal in a tableau, or in small ponds as mountains rising from the water.  I do love the aesthetic at work in the Chinese gardens, as it is ingenious and beauteous.  We want to go back to the garden when a few less hundred people are there, perhaps deep winter here, whatever that feels like, to see more of the structure, and to actually linger, as the title suggests.

Pics of this garden and 2 previous gardens we visited but I failed to blog about due to busy weeks:

LINGERING GARDEN:  https://flic.kr/s/aHsk4SdinP

GARDEN OF CULTIVATION:  https://flic.kr/s/aHsk42WWEX

Couple’s Retreat Garden (contender for best of season):  https://flic.kr/s/aHsk42Wm7P