Fuddland
As I said, after a couple of hours of walking around the main streets of (苏州) in the rapidly-increasing heat, I was about to head back home when I noticed the entrance to one of the city’s renowned private gardens, and decided to wander in for a closer look. Paying my 20元 and looking at the ticket, I discovered this was [variously translated as Surging Waves Pavilion, Calm Waves Pavilion, or simply Blue Waves Pavilion]. Reading my guidebook at home later, I found that, at around a thousand years old, this is the most ancient of the surviving gardens — a fitting place to begin my [intended] frequent visits to ’s gardens.
Initially, I have to say, I was disappointed: things were a little too unkempt for the pristine, magical image of ’s gardens I had been carrying around in my head. But I soon warmed to the wildness of the place, and was surprised at how long I could spend wandering between the buildings and outdoors, discovering new rooms where I thought I’d been before, and all in relative peace — only three or four other people were visiting at the same time as me.
[See the photos in my Flickr photoset.]
Comments
Hannah | 2006 / 06 / 14 – 00:38
Wow, what a lovely garden. Look forward to seeing more of them over the next few months on your Flickr page.
Take care David
Sarah | 2006 / 06 / 20 – 20:31
wow.. I guess you were expecting too high? Because the pictures were like.. ‘wow’ to me… Phooo beautiful.. or was it your photographing skills? ;) Took some as my wallpaper, hope that’s ok.
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