Checking in at Gui Lake

Gui Lake was established during the Sui and Tang dynasties, originally named 'Nanting'. The city wall in the garden was built in the 18th year of Sui Kaihuang. The lake in Gui Lake was formed by digging soil for the city wall during the Sui and Tang dynasties. It is the only surviving relic of the garden lake from the Sui and Tang dynasties. The Sui and Tang city walls have become verdant mountains, this early garden mountain and lake structure is a very precious and rare physical specimen of garden culture in our country. Gui Lake was a post-house style official garden belonging to the county office in the early Tang Dynasty. During the Zhengde and Jiajing periods of the Ming Dynasty, the famous scholar Yang Shen (also known as Shengan) planted osmanthus trees along the lake in the post house and renamed it 'Gui Lake'. The buildings of Gui Lake were destroyed by war at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The buildings of Gui Lake were rebuilt during the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods of the Qing Dynasty. Gui Lake's classical garden architecture is unique, with the only asymmetrical double pavilion 'Jiajia Pavilion' in the country, a rare building complex 'Shengan Ancestral Hall' composed of three buildings, and the only double-eave grass pavilion 'Tingting' in the country. The garden has the largest pair of wisteria in our country's cities, the only Qing Dynasty Sichuan-style pebble rockery in the country, and its osmanthus and lotus flowers are respectively one of the top five osmanthus viewing spots and one of the top eight lotus viewing spots in the country. On November 20, 1996, 'Yang Shengan Ancestral Hall and Gui Lake' were announced by the State Council as the fourth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.