The Private Gardens in Suzhou(转载)

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Chinese people started to build gardens more than 2000 years ago. Over this long period of time, three styles of gardens came into being: the imperial garden, the temple garden and the private garden. Among them, the most famous imperial garden extant today is the Summer Palace in Beijing, while the private gardens south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River boast a unique ambience of their own. Scattered through Suzhou, Yangzhou and other places, the private gardens are mostly legacies from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Each resembling a landscape painting, they are of unmatched charm.