Yuyuan Garden, a place of peace and comfort in the heart of bustling China's Shanghai Municipality, dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Now a popular tourist destination, Yuyuan started out as a private garden created by Pan Yunduan, who spent almost 20 years -- and all of his savings -- to build a garden for his parents in their old age. He named the garden "Yuyuan" since "yu" means "peace and health" in Chinese.

The present-day Yuyuan Garden occupies an area of two hectares and is built in a style of the renowned Suzhou gardens, which are characterized by an exquisite layout, beautiful scenery and artistic architecture. Each pavilion, hall, stone and stream in the garden expresses the essence of South China's landscape design from the Ming and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

Brief history

During the past 400 years, Yuyuan Garden, which has been restored and reopened several times, was most frequently in disarray. Due to the decline of the Pan family after Pan Yuduan's death, Yuyuan Garden gradually fell into disrepair.

In the 25th year (1760) of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, local people raised money to buy part of the garden and had it repaired. During the Daoguang reign (1821-1850) of the Qing Dynasty, since the garden had been in disrepair for a long time, the local government designated some people to manage one out of its total 21 sections as a meeting place. Finally, 21 types of businesses emerged, each responsible for repairing one section of the garden.

Although the garden was improved by local seigneurs, several civil conflicts in the mid-19th century caused great damages.

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