The Surging Wave Pavilion

The Surging Wave Pavilion

Celebrated for the delights of the wilderness of mountain and forest scenery, the Surging Wave Pavilion is the oldest among the existing classical gardens of Suzhou. The exact location of the Surging Wave Pavilion can be found in the Song Dynasty map of Pingjiang (Suzhou, A.D.1229) inscribed on the stele. On the whole the present garden of the Surging Wave Pavilion still keeps the style of the Song. It features a range of man-made mountains inside the garden and waterscapes outside. Proceeding past the pure expanse of water over a zigzag bridge of stone and through the entrance, one comes to the garden and catches sight of man-made mountain covered with age-old trees and bamboo, running from east to west. The Surging Wave Pavilion in the shape of a square stands at the top of the mountain and has a parallel couplet from the Song poets on the stone pillars to heighten artistic conception. Most of the garden buildings, simple and plain, were rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty, carefully arranged around the mountains and connected by a long roofed walkway. A double-corridor built by the canal lies to the north of the garden, unifying waterscapes outside the garden and "mountain scenery" inside in one breath through its latticed windows, one of incredible examples of borrowed scenes in the classical gardens of Suzhou. Compared with other classical gardens of Suzhou, the Surging Wave Pavilion is simply unrivaled in terms of "urban scenery".