Clove Garden

Lilac Garden is one of the most famous and well preserved old western style houses in Shanghai. It was designed and built in 1860s by the then American architect Rogers hired by Li Hongzhang. The garden integrates the official residence of western garden with the garden of Jiangnan in China. There are three western style garden villas in the garden, full of wisteria, cloves and other plants, and the environment is pleasant. Clove garden is listed as an excellent modern architectural protection unit in Shanghai.

The reputation of clove garden lies not only in the architecture itself, but also in the legendary identity of the owner of the house. There are three western style garden villas in the garden. The first floor is the Dingxiang building where Li Hongzhang and Dingxiang live, and the second floor is the American style villa building in the late 19th century. Now it is clove garden, which is listed as an excellent modern architectural protection unit in Shanghai.

No. 1 building is said to be the residence of Li Hongzhang and his favorite concubine Dingxiang. It is also said that Li Hongzhang later gave it to Li Jingmai, his young son. The second floor is an American style villa building in the late 19th century. Building 3 is Li Hongzhang's library. Today, shenyuexuan restaurant, which specializes in Shanghai cuisine, Cantonese cuisine and Hong Kong Style afternoon tea, is located here. When you enter the restaurant, you can enjoy the whole garden scenery.

Clove Garden

Clove garden is one of the most famous and well preserved old houses in Shanghai beach. The reputation of clove garden lies not only in the architecture itself, but also in the legendary identity of the owner of the house. There are three western style garden villas in the garden. The first floor is the Dingxiang building where Li Hongzhang and Dingxiang live, and the second floor is the American style villa building in the late 19th century. Now it is clove garden, which is listed as an excellent modern architectural protection unit in Shanghai.

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brief introduction

Dingxiang garden, located at 849 Huashan Road, Wukang intersection, is one of the top ten famous garden houses in Shanghai, which made Huashan Road a hundred years ago. Today, the courtyard surrounded by wisteria and dragons, and the fragrant lilac garden are still telling the ancient and romantic legend. It is said that this garden was the private garden of Li Hongzhang, the Minister of Beiyang in the late Qing Dynasty. Later, it was handed down to his son Li Jingmai. Another rumor is that clove garden was originally the residence of Lin clough, the manager of Taixing foreign company, and later sold to Li Jingmai, Li Hongzhang's youngest son. But whatever the rumor is. It's all about Li Jingmai. Let's deduce from the first statement for the time being. Since the late 1860s, Li Hongzhang, as the leader of the Westernization Movement, has set up modern military industry, textile industry and shipping industry in Shanghai, such as Jiangnan manufacturing Bureau, machinery weaving Bureau, shipping merchants Bureau, etc. He often lives in Shanghai, accompanied by his favorite concubine Dingxiang. Li Hongzhang entrusts Sheng Xuanhuai to buy a real estate for her in Shanghai. Knowing this, Sheng bought 2.67 hectares of land on Haige Road (now Huashan Road) and hired American architect Isaiah Rogers to design in Shanghai. Rogers is one of the pioneers of modern architecture. He is good at combining new equipment such as sanitation, fire fighting and heating with architectural art. He built a novel villa and a large American garden. Many clove bushes were planted in the garden, which is called clove garden.

Garden layout

The two buildings in the park are American style villa buildings in the late 19th century (i.e. the No.1 and No.3 buildings later built). They have the same appearance and internal structure, protruding in the middle. The upper floor is an open corridor balcony with red and white hues, which makes the small building particularly bright against the background of the surrounding green space. The lower floor is a passageway in front of the door, but the No.1 building is concave, and the No.3 building is semicircular. There are three main rooms on the lower floor of No.1 building facing south, which are dining room and living room, with kitchen, storage room and servant room on the north; there are three main rooms on the second floor, with a large protruding balcony in the middle, with bedrooms inside and small study and reception room beside; cloves are planted in front of the building. Building 3 is the library "Wangyun thatched cottage". There are Cinnamomum camphora in the front. It is rich in books and antiquities. Later, the house was handed down to Li Jingmai, who changed the furnishings of the house into a combination of Chinese and Western styles. There were many Chinese and foreign objects awarded by the royal family. On the walls, there were both portraits of ancestors and Western paintings. What impresses people most is that the carpet is a huge white tiger skin. After the death of Li Jingmai, his son Li Guochao donated more than 10000 books to the library of Sinian University before he went abroad, including military books, local chronicles, chronicles, transcripts of yuanrouquanshu, and complete works of Li Wenzhong. Sinian University attaches great importance to it. It has set up a special room, which is specially customized with a lot of large and carved bookcases. It also has a special room for display, which is called "Li's Library". The curator of the library also wrote an article on the Journal of the University, introducing the collection. In the 1950s, after the liberation, the departments and colleges adjusted, and these books were collected in the library of Fudan University.

To the south of clove garden is the garden. Facing the whole clove garden, there is no need to cover the boundless green fields. You can have a panoramic view of Western and Chinese gardens. There are huge lawns and tall camphors in the garden, and three red and white English garden villas (among them, the second building was built after liberation) are hidden in the lush flowers and trees. In the garden, the winding paths lead to seclusion, and the bamboo trees cover the sky. The building room at the gate of the garden is surrounded by a winding low wall, more than 100 meters long and 18 sections undulating. It is known as "a dragon lying in the garden", so it is also called "Dragon Wall". The dragon wall has a portal, which is called Longmen. The entrance passage is paved with pebbles

The second floor is an American style villa building in the late 19th century, with beautiful appearance. The interior structure is the same, protruding in the middle, with balcony on the upper floor and aisle in front of the door on the lower floor. However, building 1 is concave, and building 3 is semicircular.

Clove garden is located in the south of the villa. There are many cloves planted in the garden, so it is called clove garden. Of course, because of its concubine Ding Xiang. There is a lake in the garden, named Weiming lake. There is a Jiuqu bridge on the lake. There is a pavilion in the center of the lake. It is an octagonal peak with plain colored glazed tiles. There is a phoenix sculpture on the top, so it is called Phoenix Pavilion. There are dry boats and rockeries on the lakeside, which are all traditional garden practices, but there are also western garden styles, which can be described as a combination of Chinese and western. There are also zigzag dragon walls and glazed tiles on the top. There are more than 100 dragons carved on the wall. Around the lake, there are also Taihu Lake stones piled into various animal shapes, which are very interesting. There are paths, bridges and caves in the garden.

There is a lake in the garden. There is a zigzag bridge on the lake. In the center of the lake, there is a pavilion in the middle of the lake. The octagonal peak of plain colored glazed tiles stands on top of a Phoenix, which is called "Phoenix Pavilion". Facing the dragon head from afar, it means that the dragon and the Phoenix are auspicious. There are boats by the lake. Garden trees, flower beds, rockery, a combination of Chinese and western, rocks shade, flowers, such as a dream. In the garden, plants are widely planted, such as Chimonanthus praecox, wisteria, Wutong, Cinnamomum camphora and Osmanthus fragrans, and the most exciting thing is the clove bloom. So people would rather believe that this elegant garden was built for a woman named lilac.

Traffic information

Bus: take bus No.48, 113, 548 to Huashan Road and Wukang Road station.

Subway: take subway lines 1 and 7 to Changshu Road and Shanghai Library Station on line 10, and walk for about 15 minutes.

Garden owner

Li Jingmai, the owner of clove garden, was the youngest son of Li Hongzhang, a senior official of the Qing Dynasty. He was born of a commoner and was born to his aunt mo. this aunt was born as a maid of the Li family in Taiyuan, and was later taken over by Li Hongzhang. Therefore, he was not high in the Li family, and Li Jingmai was also discriminated against in the Li family. Li Jingmai was thin and small when he was a child, which attracted Li Hongzhang's pity. In his later years, Li Hongzhang bought a number of real estate for him, and told people: this child is thin and small, and he may not be able to support himself in the future. These real estate should be his food. No matter how stupid the child is, he will charge the rent. In fact, Li Hongzhang misjudged Li Jingmai at that time. When he grew up, he was clever and treacherous. When Li Hongzhang separated after his death, his elder brothers looked down on Li Jingmai because of his concubines, so they gave him the worthless stocks and the worst real estate at that time. It's strange to say that Li Jingmai didn't have many years when he got the property. He seized all kinds of market opportunities and increased the value of his stocks and real estate by countless times. Then he became a rich man. However, some of his wealth was obtained by deception, which was extremely disgraceful. The most famous real estate under the name of Li Jingmai is Zhenliu apartment and clove garden. Lilac Garden was originally the private garden of Li Hongzhang, Minister of Beiyang in the late Qing Dynasty.

legend

Legend one

The garden is said to be a place for Li Hongzhang to hide his concubines. This seventh aunt is too famous for lilac, so it is called lilac garden. Although it has been proved that Li Hongzhang has no so-called "seventh aunt" at all, and he has never lived here. But Shanghai people still spread this long-standing romantic legend from generation to generation, just as they stubbornly believe that the fairy tale Mahler villa was designed by Mahler according to a dream of his daughter. If you think about it, it's probably because Lilac Garden and many similar villas are always deep in the courtyard

So people prefer to use more wonderful imagination to fill those old dreams of prosperous and mysterious sea. It is said that Li Hongzhang and the seventh aunt lived in Building 1 at that time.

Legend 2

It is also said that Li Hongzhang later passed on the Lilac Garden to his young son, Li Jingmai (1876-1940), who was born of a concubine

Chinese PinYin : Ding Xiang Hua Yuan