This is the Bamboo Garden. This expansion ofGuyi Garden was completed in 1988. Itoccupies more than thirty acres of land, including five man-made ponds. After aseveral periods of expansion, this Ming Dynasty residential garden is now tentimes its original size. It originally had one pond, and now has several pondsand streams of more than one thousand meters long.
The new quarter and the original quarter are connected. TheBamboo Garden is indeed a garden within agarden. The main theme in this quarter is bamboo. The architecture andbuildings, such as the Lotus and Bamboo Pavilion, Gentleman Hall, the MoonWatch Platform, all merge into the bamboo forest. The bamboo forest makes theplace tranquil and elegant.
There is a boat terminal at the pavilion to the north.Boats are available there for rent. It’s very pleasurable indeed to spend sometime enjoying this classical landscape from the water.
In front of the courtyard stands an ancient stone pagoda,the WanAn Tower. Nanxiang Townwas formed around Buddhist temples. During the Yuan Dynasty, three big temples,White CraneTemple, DaDeWanShouTemple and WanAn Templewere built here, and had great number of followers.
The WanAn Tower was located inside the WanAn Temple.In 1937, the Japanese invaded Shanghai,a fierce battle was fought and the temple was hit. Most of the buildings in thetemple were destroyed; the tower had only three levels intact. In 1988, thissix hundred-year old tower was restored, and moved to this garden.
