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The Lion Forest Garden

The Rockery Kingdom

The Lion Forest Garden is famous for its rockeries, and is one of the top four gardens in Suzhou. The rockery in the Lion Forest Garden is unique, and also huge in number. Walking in the garden is like entering a labyrinth.

The Lion Forest Garden 狮子林 is only a block away from the Humble Administrator's Garden 拙政园, and has a surprising number of lake rockeries in the garden, with the reputation as the Rockery Kingdom. The Lion Forest Garden began in the Yuan Dynasty, in the year 1342 Zen Master Tianru invited more than ten master designers such as Ni Zan 倪瓒 to design a garden for his Buddhism master. The garden is named by its lion-shaped layout and a buddha’s lion seat. Because the Lion Forest Garden was once a monastery, the name of the buildings in the garden is more related to Buddhism: Zhi Bai Pavilion 指柏轩, Li Xue Hall 立雪堂, Wo Yun Room, Wen Mei Pavilion, their predecessor are Dharma halls, Zen rooms and guest houses.

The Lion Forest Garden is famous for its lake rockery, most of the space in the garden is covered by hills and rocks. When you walk along the path built by the rockery, the only places you can see are the eaves and treetops. When you walk through the cave and across the bridge, you will see a clear view of the surrounding landscape, which is very different from the one you had before you entered the rockery garden.

Manywhere Tips:
Since the Lion Forest Garden is always crowded in holidays, guess we should change its name to the People Forest Garden.

The Emperor Qianlong made six trips to the south of the Yangtze River, and had been to the Lion Forest Garden five times. He ordered to put up the famous Really Interesting 真趣 Plaque here.

At the beginning of the Republic of China, a rich merchant Pei Renyuan 贝仁元 purchased this garden, he built Pei's Ancestral Hall on the east side, added architectures such as Yan Yu Hall 燕誉堂, the Nine Lions Peak 九狮峰, and the Stone Boat 石舫, introducing a lot of Western-style elements into the Lion Forest Garden. By the way, the world-famous architect I.M. Pei 贝聿铭 is one of the descendants of the Suzhou Pei family, he also presided over the design of Suzhou Museum next door.