The Huanhua Brook is in the west suburb of Chengdu City, where forest is exuberantly green, brook stream is glittering, and the environment is quite dainty and peaceful. Du Fu, a great realistic poet in ancient China, set there his former residence -- Du Fu Thatched Cottage, which has been turned into the Du Fu Memorial Hall.

Du Fu was born in the 1^st year (712) of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in Gongxian County of Henan Province, and died in a boat drifting on the Xiangjiang River in the 5^th year (770) of the reign of Emperor Daizong. Living in a transitional period from prosperity to decline of the Tang Dynasty, Du Fu experienced the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion in the mid-Tang era, so many of his poems reflected the realistic social scenarios at that time. Du Fu's poems had significant influence on Chinese literature development, and therefore he is esteemed as the Poem Saint. In the 2^nd year (759) of the Qianyuan reign, Du Fu was exiled in Chengdu, set up the hut beside the Huanhua Brook, and lived there for about 4 years. During this time, he wrote about 240 poems, many of which such as My Thatched Hut Wrecked by the Autumn Wind win universal praise.

After the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), his later generations built gardens and a memorial hall on the site of the thatched collage, and repaired many times. The present architecture was formed after two large-scale renovations in the 13^th year (1500) of the Hongzhi reign in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the 16^th year (1811) of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The extant main buildings include the Office-cum-Residence, the Poem History Hall, the gate made of tree trunk, and the Shrine of Gong Bu (official title), etc.

Inside the front door of the cottage, two big banyan trees standing beside the old stone bridge shelter the cottage with exuberant branches and leaves. The stone bridge leads to a plum forest and then the Office-cum-Residence. Behind the Office-cum-Residence there is the Poem History Hall, which houses the statue of Du Fu, rubbings of his wood-carved portraits, and couplets written by celebrities of the past dynasties. A small bridge behind the hall leads to the Shrine of Gong Bu, which houses stone sculptures of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and earthen sculptures of the Qing Dynasty. Here Du Fu's statue is enshrined and worshiped, and on both sides of Du Fu's statue stand statues of famous poets Huang Tingjian and Lu You of the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

At the east and west wing of the Office-cum-Residence and the Shrine of Gong Bu, there is the exhibition rooms of the Du Fu Memorial Hall. In the Hatched Cottage Reading Room on the left side of the Shrine of Gong Bu, various versions of Du Fu poems are on display. On the right side of the Qiashouhang Room is the exhibition room of selected translations of Du Fu's poems. And the exhibition rooms on both sides of the Poem History Hall display paintings and calligraphic works related to Du Fu's poems.

Around the rockery behind the Shrine of Gong Bu, there are gardens and pavilions added after the founding of new China. There are ponds, lotuses, lilies, Chinese crabapple flowers, laurels, camellias and other rare flowers as well as trees above the rippling waves, and platforms, pavilions, on-water houses dot the green expanse, presenting graceful scenery full of southern countryside flavor.