GARDENS
Suzhou is best known for its landscaped gardens, over 150 of them. Suzhou’s gardens are not known for their size, but their delicate designs, containing hills and ponds, terraces, corridors, towers, and almost everything that is needed in an “imperial garden.” Among them, the Liu Garden, which covers about 10 acres, is the largest and one of the most attractive. It was one of the few gardens that escaped destruction during the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-19th century.

The garden was first laid out during the Ming Dynasty by a civil servant who also had the West Garden, or Xi Yuan, constructed.