Suzhou park

Suzhou park

Suzhou park has gone through more than 70 years of vicissitudes. Although it has been renovated many times, it still maintains the layout style of the French style garden formed in the early days of the park and the natural landscape of China. In 2001, the municipal government decided to carry out a comprehensive transformation to improve the environment, improve the function of facilities and adapt to the development of urban construction.

Brief introduction of the park

Suzhou park is located between Gongyuan Road, Minzhi Road, Wusan road and Caoqiao Lane in the center of the ancient city of Suzhou, covering an area of 64 mu. It is free to open all year round.

Historical evolution

According to the records of Suzhou City, Suzhou park "is the first modern park in Suzhou, commonly known as the Grand Park." The origin of the park can be traced back to the spring and Autumn period. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, there were additional repairs, and the park was "accessible to the public in spring". At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, it was Zhang Shicheng's palace, which was burned down later, so it was reduced to wasteland, which was called huanghuanghuangji. Looking at the map of Suzhou in 1908, we can see that there is a pool in the south of gengzi lane, and the land is sparse. At that time, the western wind was spreading to the East, so it was suggested to build a "citizen Park" here. An indispensable "idle land" in Suzhou people's life began to attract the attention of the enlightened gentry. After the May 4th movement, people from all walks of life proposed to build a park with complete science, culture and entertainment facilities including library, cultural relics exhibition room, hall, music Pavilion, etc. In 1920, Xi Yiming, a great businessman of Jiangyin in Shanghai, donated 50000 silver yuan to start the preparation. First, the students of civil engineering of Suzhou Institute of technology survey the plan, and then submit it to the Shanghai public Council Bureau, French horticulturist ruosom for planning and design. At the end of July of this year, a castle like two-story library with four bell towers (formerly Wuxian Library) was built in the south of Hechi in the middle of the garden. On the east side of the hall is the "Dongzhai" teahouse. In the southwest corner is the West Pavilion. In the southeast of the garden, there is a pool named "Moon". Beside the pool, there are corridors, wisteria and more than 4000 trees. In the 1920s, the classical gardens inside and outside the city were rarely open, and the park was praised as the only quiet place in the city.

Introduction to the elderly

According to Yu Li'an, an old man who is enthusiastic about local chronicles, in 1926, he saw that the park had built a wall. The lower part of the wall was made of green water brick, about 1 meter high, and the upper part was equipped with an iron fence, about 0.5 meters high. The iron fences were all cast with fine patterns,

The wall is built with granite pillars every three meters or so. In the west, it is bounded by Wusan road to the north, xizhutang Temple (the southern end of Jincheng New Village), and in the East, it is along Gongyuan road to longchi'an (the location of today's Garden Restaurant). It is retracted and folded to the West. In the north, it is only built along Shiqiao Lane (xiancaoqiao Lane) because it is not developed.

Park Design

Because the Grand Park was designed by French horticulturist jotsom at that time, the garden wall was not a traditional closed high wall. Its old appearance can be seen clearly in page 88 of the first volume of "the centenary of old Suzhou" compiled by the City Local Records Office. It was this kind of semi open wall with iron bars on the top and bricks on the bottom. The garden gate shown in the photo is a side gate in the southeast corner. To the north of the gate stands a water tower, which was built to supply water for the fountain (there was no running water in Suzhou at that time). The house behind the water tower is the office of the park management office. In 1937, the Soviet city was occupied, the Japanese army occupied the park, stationed troops to keep horses, the library was destroyed, and the exquisite iron fence was removed by the Japanese army to make weapons. All these are the evidence of the Japanese army's atrocity in Suzhou. As for the enclosed wall, it was built only after the victory of the Anti Japanese War, and it was rebuilt not long ago. From the changes of the wall, we can see that the opening-up is the general trend after several twists and turns.

When the park was built in early 1925, it only took shape. There was a magnificent Library in the park (the rose bed before the park was rebuilt). Dongzhai teahouse was on the East, and a lotus pond was built in the north. Now the children's playground is Xiting teahouse. There is a large Crescent pond (now the park Hall) in the southeast corner of the park. The rest are wasteland and solitary graves. When cedars were planted at the South Gate of the park, piles of bones were dug out and then buried in open bone growers half a meter high.

Renovation of the park

After the victory of the northern expedition in 1927, the park was renovated and presided over by Jiang Jingtao, the cousin of Suzhou calligrapher Jiang Yinqiu and then director of public welfare. Yan Wenliang was invited to design the fountain. The lotus pond in the north of the library was also excavated and planted with turf. It was completed and opened on August 1 of the same year, making a sensation in the city.. In 1930, fan Yunshu was employed as the director of the Park Management Office (formerly the director of the horticultural department of Suzhou Agricultural School), and the park renovation project which had been suspended for some reason was restored. All the remaining wasteland tombs in the park were moved to the outskirts, but two larger tombs were still preserved in the east of Dongzhai. There were steles in Wu Zhongbao's tomb. Unfortunately, I can't remember the names of the two tomb owners. The lotus pond in the north of the library is also connected with the lotus pond in the north of Dongzhai. In 1931, he continued to dig the northern pond, plant lotus and fish, and plant 200 maple trees donated by Li Gengen. On the top of the earth mountain, he built a pavilion surrounded by four sides, a famous folk Pavilion. So far, the Suzhou park, which has been around for decades, has been built.

Suzhou magazine once published a letter from a Taiwanese from Suzhou, saying that there was a lotus pond in the north of the library, which was originally a big hole caused by a bomb dropped by a Japanese plane during the "1.28" Anti Japanese War, but it was wrong. The Great Park was not attacked during the "1.28" war and the Anti Japanese war in 1932. The lotus pond was excavated by hand, and many skeletons were excavated underground, all of which were buried in other places. The hill in the north of the pool was excavated and piled up. Sun Tiezhou, a native of Haining who lived in Jiangsu Province, raised 2000 yuan from Qian Dajun and Xia Douyin to build a pavilion. Zhang Yi (Zhongren) wrote "minde Pavilion" with the signature of "Minyu". In the pavilion, there were mahogany tables and chairs, and Wu Hufan and other famous paintings and calligraphy hanging. Unfortunately, these furnishings were looted by the Japanese invaders when they were occupied.

After the northern expedition in 1927, a park cinema was built on the north side of Xiting. It was mainly used to show domestic silent movies, and the box office was often full. At the beginning, it was stipulated that men and women should sit separately, but it was later abolished when people objected. Cinemas were also destroyed during the Japanese occupation.

After the founding of the people's Republic of China, the Education Bureau took over the park. In June 1953, the Suzhou municipal government allocated thousands of yuan for renovation. Bamboo pavilion was built at the original site of the library destroyed by Japanese artillery fire. The North lawn was turned into a children's paradise. Hanshe was transformed into a children's reading room. It was the largest garden in the city at that time. Since then, the structure of the park has been adjusted many times, but the park has always maintained the artificial style of flower beds and fountains in the southern half, and the natural style of landscape in the northern half. It can be said that in more than half a century, Suzhou park has become one of the cultural carriers of Suzhou citizens.

Development history

The reconstruction project is based on the original combination of Chinese and Western characteristics, maintaining the original Southern rules of Versailles Palace

In the north, the original big trees and historical buildings such as Mingde Pavilion and yuzhai are retained by the natural layout of Chinese landscape garden; the teahouse, gymnasium, children's paradise and four gates are mainly reconstructed; the greening environment is comprehensively adjusted and plant landscaping is used; the hydrophilic platform, Furong square, pattern flower bed and two underground garages are newly built; the lighting and road system are updated; the lotus pond is dredged To restore the lotus landscape. Make the park look brand new, reflect the flavor of the times, and become a leisure place for citizens' fitness, entertainment and viewing.

Address: no.258 Minzhi Road, Gusu District, Suzhou

Longitude: 120.627766

Latitude: 31.304552

Tel: 0512-65233549

Chinese PinYin : Su Zhou Gong Yuan