We spent the morning at one of my favourite places in Nanjing today. Xu Yuan Gardens in Nanjing are a part of the Presidents Palace (variously occupied during the Ming, Qing Dynasties, the Taiping rebellion, and the Republic (hence the name). The gardens date from the Ming dynasty.
The scene above is in my favourite part of the garden. There are more pictures of the garden here at China Encounters flickr album. The Presidents Palace and Xu Yuan gardens are located here (google satellite image of Nanjing)
Right in the middle of the city one enters an oasis of calm - even the parties of tourists cannot rob that calm. A Chinese scholars garden was built to provide a place for reflection. Those who planned them could never have anticipated todays city life, and the massive buildings that often seek to crowd in, yet the combination of the four main elements is as effective today as it ever was. Plants pruned and painstakingly sculpted so that reflect the natural and ideal beauty of a species. Rocks piled into little mountains. Water peaceful and stll, reflecting the light differently at every time of day and in every season. Architectural features -- pavilions, walls, doorways, windows, bridges and paths -- proving a perfect foil for the plants. Calligraphy, poetic names of locations, and sculptures thrill the soul. The assymetrical design, the many small "rooms", the ever changing vistas and surprises continually amaze.
Even the modern city is nowadays drawn into the equation. It was always the genius of the designer to draw in features beyond the walls as "borrowed landscape" - hills, pagoda's and the like. Today the surrounding skyscrapers have become a part of the mix, such that it was almost as if they wee designed to be there. Or maybe the architects and planners did sit down and see what part their work would play in this timeless world.
More gardens to come; and also more on the Presidents Palace.
