"In heaven there is paradise..." a Suzhou Travel Page by agaiax

If you're into Chinese architecture, especially garden architecture, visiting Suzhou is a must. Suzhou is China's well-known 'city of gardens' and tops all others in the number and the artistry of garden design.
In Chinese garden architecture there are two distinct types of gardens: a royal garden and a private garden (of administrators, bureaucrats, high officials, etc.). Royal gardens are grand structures emphasizing emperor’s strength, wealth and power, while the private gardens originate from the desire to retire from the public life of officialdom and to seek seclusion from worldly affairs in natural ambient.
Suzhou boasts of private gardens, little walled and secluded gems, some of them with a history of 1500 years. There were once over 200 gardens in the city, and 69 of them are still well preserved today and definitely worth
visiting.

Since I am a landscape architect by profession - this city was a real treat for me. I enjoyed every minute spent there strolling through the marvelous gardens, taking pictures, sketching and drawing - experiencing in practice what I've learned in my years of studies. So I guess I'm gonna take the opportunity and explain you more in detail about Chinese garden tradition and art further on in one of the travelouges.

Situated in the south of Jiangsu province in a subtropical zone of warm and humid climate the surrounding cultural landscape is defined by plantations. You can already find some fairly vast tea grooves and the more to the south you go (toward Zhejiang province), the more numerous and big the tea plantations get.

Rock-gardening is a Chinese art. Penjing, similar to the Japanese bonsai, is a miniature pot plant with the landscape. The landscape may consist of rock or wood. Miniature rock gardens also contain pavilions and terraces, trees and flowers, sailing boats, people, birds and animals, all very much reduced in size but nevertheless life-like.
You can find really beautiful collections of penjing in some of the Suzhou gardens, I prefered the ones on display in The Humble Administrator's Garden and Tiger Hill.