Chinese ancient gardens, enjoying great fame since ancient times, traditionally fall into two styles: northern and southern styles. Northern ancient gardens are represented by imperial gardens and southern, private gardens of merchants and the wealthy. However, gardens in Yangzhou City of Jiangsu Province are an exception, forming their unique style between the above-mentioned two schools. Yangzhou gardens not only feature the spectacularity of northern gardens, but also boast a large number of elaborate architectural works, which is the main characteristic of southern gardens.
There is a saying that gardens in Yangzhou are innumerous just like residential houses. The number of gardens in Yangzhou and their refined architectural design are far beyond the reach of gardens in other places.
Yangzhou gardens are most famous for their oddly layered rockeries. The best representative among all gardens in the city is the Ge Garden, built during the reigns of Emperor Jiaqing (1796-1820) and Daoguang (1821-1850) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It was privately owned by Huang Zhijun, a salt merchant of the period. Doting on bamboo, he had many bamboos planted in his garden. And since the shape of the bamboo resembles the Chinese character "ge (个)", it was named "Ge Garden".
Situated in the northeastern corner of Yangzhou City, the Ge Garden covers a total area of about 30 mu (2 hectares). It is famous for rockeries that are piled up with stones from Huangshan Mountain and Taihu Lake. They are elaborate in shape and present different grand views that are rare within the country in four seasons. Ponds and gullies, dotted everywhere, are another highlight of this garden.
