Yuyuan Gardens
Yuyuan Gardens is a peaceful retreat in the Old Town, costing 3o rmb to enter, or about $4.40. Though the garden was not designed for the multitude of international tourists who explore its bridges, rocky paths, and wooden interiors every day, it is possible to achieve peaceful moments within the garden.
Traditional Clothing
Look carefully at the picture above to discern which article of clothing does not match the others. A sign at Yuyuan Garden reads, “Digital Photo Taken With Wearing Ancient Costume.” As soon as this Chinese tourist posed with the traditional garb, every tourist within sight gathered around her to capture what appeared to be authentic.
Latin Tree Names
The Chinese signs identifying trees are subtitled by binomial nomenclature. It disturbed me to see a dead language take priority over English. Notice the famed rock also pictured above. It looked and felt exactly like the fake rock in the Bronx Zoo. I understand what the zoologists were going for in their Asian exhibits much better now.
Jade?
Yuyuan Garden is known for The Exquisite Jade Rock. Aside from these green ceramic pillars and perhaps the occasional tint of the rock pictured in the first and third of these pictures, the most jade thing I noticed about the garden was the color of the water.
Yuyuan Garden
There were more Caucasians here than I had seen in China previously. I almost started taking pictures of them, but then remembered that would be of no interest to you all. I asked a tourist to take this picture of me because at first I thought he was speaking Tagalog, the Filipino national language, which feels native to me compared to difficult Chinese. I could not figure out which language he was speaking, though.
Yuyuan Garden
The architecture is stunningly well integrated with the surrounding rocks and water. Crossing every bridge feels like a scenic privilege .
Corridors
The tall white corridors lined with wooden, stone, and glass art between the buildings set the pace for transitioning from one part of the garden to another.