If it's your first time visiting the Canglang Pavilion, be sure to check out this guide
The Canglang Pavilion is the oldest garden in Suzhou, built during the Qingli period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1041-1048). Unlike other gardens where water is within the garden, this one is a garden within water, requiring crossing a stone bridge to enter.
👌🏻Tour Route
Main Gate (facing north)—Yubei Pavilion—Qingxiang Pavilion—Five Hundred Sages Shrine—Cuilinglong—Kanshan Tower—Yaohua Boundary—Mingdao Hall—Canglang Pavilion—Mianshui Pavilion—Exit (same as entrance) to visit Keyuan across the street.
❶Cuilinglong: The 'elegant bamboo' and 'secluded orchids' of the Canglang Pavilion are very famous. This is a building themed around bamboo, named for the idea 'Autumn hues enter the forest, dimming the red; sunlight pierces through the bamboo, creating a delicate and clear effect.' Here, thousands of bamboo stalks sway in the air, forming a forest of bamboo. With the white walls and bamboo shadows, the green drips evenly and is a place for elegant wandering and quiet contemplation. There are more than 20 varieties of bamboo in the garden.
❷Kanshan Tower: Named for the phrase 'Guests return to seek wine, silently lying down to gaze at the mountains,' it was once possible to see the Qizi and Lingyan mountains and Tianping from here. Now it is surrounded by tall buildings, but one can still see into the distance from a height.
❸Canglang Pavilion: The couplet 'The breeze and the moon are priceless, the nearby water and distant mountains all have affection' perfectly captures the essence of the Canglang Pavilion. The pavilion stands on a mountain ridge, with stone pillars and flying eaves, ancient and magnificent. The old trees on the mountain are lush and dripping with green.
❹Mingdao Hall: The main hall of the garden, formerly used for lectures, is named for the idea 'Observing and listening without malice, thus the path becomes clear.' The main structure of the hall is made of brick and wood, open on all sides, grand and solemn.
The most noteworthy aspect of this garden is its landscaping techniques.
✔Covered Corridor: The corridor surrounds the garden, with water on three sides, historically known as Fengxi. The covered corridor organically connects the landscapes inside and outside the garden, creating an effect where the mountains and water borrow scenery from each other. It also compensates for the lack of water in the garden, expands the visual space for visitors, enriches the content of the scenery, and forms a unique open layout.
The covered corridor of Canglang Pavilion is also known as one of the three famous corridors of classical gardens in Suzhou.
✔Leak Windows: There are 108 kinds of various leak windows in the garden, each with a different shape. Most are square or polygonal, but there are also shapes like vases, pomegranates, ruyi, and more. Their main purpose is to create an effect of 'a different view with each step,' 'changing scenery with every move.' Through the leak windows, the scenery seems separated yet not, hidden yet visible.
✔Borrowed Scenery: The scenery outside the Canglang Pavilion arises from the water, with the garden gate opening to the north, a stone bridge in front, and a pool of water stretching from west to east. The layout inside the garden is centered around a mountain, with yellow rocks at the entrance and ancient trees planted on the artificial mountain.
Most buildings are arranged around the mountain and connected by long corridors. The pavilions built by the pond are connected by the corridor, and the more than 100 different patterned leak windows on the corridor allow for viewing on both sides, naturally blending the water outside the garden with the mountains inside. It is a model of borrowed scenery.
📍Address: 768 Renmin Road, Gusu District, Suzhou
🎫 Ticket Price: 15 yuan per person
⏰Opening Hours: 7:30 - 17:00
🚘Self-driving: Navigate to Suzhou Canglang Pavilion
🚇Subway: Take Suzhou Metro Line 4 or 5 to Nanmen Station, Exit 3, and walk about 800m.
This spring, I wanted to go to Dali, because I saw Shen Fu's Fusheng VI again, and suddenly wanted to come to Yangzhou and Suzhou in March for fireworks, and wanted to see the Canglang Pavilion. Sure enough, the Langlang Pavilion is also like written in the book. The garden is surrounded by water, crossing the bridge into the park, the corridor, 108 windows are different and have their own scenery, the bamboo forest is sparse and chic, and the garden is small and chic. I like it very much. In order to avoid many tourists, we arrived at the park before 8 o'clock, went around a lot, and also watched the water, drank tea and ate snacks, very satisfied
The garden is not big, the rockery garden structure of the garden, the Han Shizhong residence of the Southern Song Dynasty of the Langlang Pavilion, an hour of shopping is enough, the ornamental nature is general, just famous, in contrast, I prefer other gardens in Suzhou.
Other Suzhou gardens have similar landscape garden layouts. The difference is that they belong to a private garden. There are different courtyards and scenery in the garden, but I didn’t see the house. The scenery is still good.
Literature master Lin Yutang said that the girl is the most like a woman in China, so I specially bought the floating six notes, from which I knew Shen Fu, the girl, and the girl. On the weekend, I went to Gusu to travel in a hurry, and I still arranged the girl's pavilion. Without the flow of people in the Humble Administrator's Garden, the flow of people in the Canglang Pavilion is sparse and can be carefully tasted. Building by the water makes this garden look different, and the corridors on both sides are especially elegant and chic. The interior decoration is simple and elegant, and even the indoor decorations are so suitable for the bonsai orchids. In short, the experience is very good.
The name comes from the book "The Record of the Sound of the Lang Pavilion" written by Song Suxuqin, and the poem "The Sound of the Lang Pavilion" written by Ouyang Xiu - "The Qingfeng Mingyue is priceless, but unfortunately only sells 40,000 yuan", only this sentence, the world knows the Sound Pavilion.
The Langlang Pavilion is very beautiful and chic, especially the 108 windows of different shapes are too attractive. There are two kinds of scenery in the courtyard with one wall and two corridors, which is great. During the Spring Festival, tickets are better to make an appointment, that is, there are more people, and you can also play in the park, the Confucian Temple, etc.
Compared with the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lingering Garden, it is very small. During the Qing Dynasty, the Linglang Pavilion moved from the river to the mountain. The bricks on the ground were still printed by craftsmen, like those taken from the city building when it was rebuilt after the founding of the country. There are 500 celebrities in it, and the name of Lin Zexu, but I didn't find it. Opposite the swelling pavilion is the garden.