Huanxiu Villa

Huanxiu Villa, also known as Yiyuan, is located in the Embroidery Museum. It is a classical garden with rockery as the main feature. The main feature is the mountain, supplemented by the pool, and there are not many buildings. Although the garden is small, it is very imposing. The layout is ingeniously designed, and the lake, mountain, pool, trees and buildings are integrated into one; the rockery and the pool are unique.

Rockery: Huanxiu Villa is listed as a famous garden in Suzhou mainly because of its rockery. The lake stone rockery in the garden was built by Ge Yuliang, a famous rockery artist during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Ge's rockery is unique and covers an area of ​​only half an acre, but within a short distance, there are thousands of rocks and valleys, and the surrounding mountains are visible. The scenery changes with every step, and it is known as "unique in Jiangnan".

The rockery occupies one third of the whole garden, and is located to the east of the garden, with its tail extending to the northeast. The mountain has dangerous paths, caves, valleys, cliffs, flying beams, and cliffs, with a variety of scenes, just like nature. Its main peak stands out in the southeast, and the secondary peak bows to the northwest. The pool is winding between the two mountains, giving people the feeling that a peak suddenly rises up in a plain and towers above the wilderness.

The main mountain is divided into two parts, front and back, with a valley in between. The Yinshan Mountain is made entirely of stacked stones, with steep cliffs and peaks on the outside and caves on the inside. The back mountain facing the pool is made of lake stone walls, with only about one meter of space between it and the front mountain, forming a cave valley about 5 meters high. The main peak is 7.2 meters high, the valley is about 12 meters, and the mountain path is more than 60 meters long, winding up and down.

Feixue Spring: A famous spring in Suzhou Gardens. This spring was dug from the ground during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty when Jiang Ji (Zi Jichuan), a member of the Ministry of Justice, purchased Huanxiu Villa and rebuilt it. The water quality is excellent, and Jiang Ji named it "Feixue Spring" after the meaning of Su Dongpo's poem "Fog and fine beads fall from the tea, and the light snow flies around the cup". Now in Qiushan, west of the garden, you can see the two words "Feixue" engraved on the stone wall facing the pool.

Feixue Spring has been silted up for many years, and the ruins are still there. Later generations cleverly used the site as the source of the big rockery stream. There are dangerous stepping stones in the stream. After the rain, the waterfall rushes down and enters the pool and the belly of the main mountain. The stone wall occupies a small area, but it is well-equipped with caves, gullies, streams and cliffs. It is a self-contained structure, one main and one subordinate, one main and one secondary with great charm. There are steps and side buildings between the walls. From the upper building, you can go down along the mountain rocks to the water's edge. The path is extremely steep, but the wonderful thing is that handrail stones are set at the appropriate positions of the rock wall. The arrangement is just right, natural and without leaving any traces, which can't help but make people marvel at the extraordinary ingenuity of the gardener. At the end of the mountain road, the stone reef by the water appears and disappears with the water waves, full of natural interest.

In addition, there is a small pavilion behind the rockery, leaning against the mountain and facing the water, with a small cliff and stone pool beside it. Borrowing the meaning of "white rapids and green pools, four clear reflections", it is named "Half a pool of autumn water and a room of mountain". Looking at the mountain in the pavilion, the cliffs are like a painting. The surrounding trees are shady, with green branches and twisted trunks, full of wild interest. Going out of the north of the pavilion, along the stone steps down, the mountain stream flows low, the peaks and rocks are uneven, and there is a road leading to the "Buqiu Boat" in the north of the garden. The south of the boat faces the water. This building is three rooms wide, echoing the hall in the south of the pool.