A nice day in the gardens...

The Tai-Tai outing on Wednesday, May 10th consisted of visiting the Lingering Garden…
>With a history of more than 400 years, the Lingering Garden has changed hands several times. Each owner did his best to perfect the garden. It was first built in 1593 during the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) by a retired official named Xu Tai. During the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), it was bought by Liu Shu. As a calligraphy lover, he carved masterpieces on both sides of the corridors of the buildings. He had also collected unusually-shaped stones in the garden. The succeeding owners followed his model when doing restoration work. Almost demolished in the 1930s, the garden was repaired sponsored by the government and then opened to the public.
Like other famous gardens in Suzhou, the Lingering Garden seeks to create stunning natural landscapes within limited space. In this garden, domiciles, ancestral temples and private gardens are included. Buildings, trees, and flowers blend harmoniously with their surroundings. The garden can generally be divided into four parts: the central, eastern, western and northern parts according to the style of the buildings.
It was a bit chilly and we had a bit of drizzily rain, but that did not stop us. Here are a few pictures of the garden…

After the Lingering Garden, we headed off for a traditional Chinese lunch. Then, it was off to the West Garden Temple…
West Garden Temple is the largest temple in Suzhou City. It blends garden art and temple art. In the temple you can see the ancient trees flourish, the temple houses layer upon layer, the bending river, the green grass, hear the birds singing and smell the fragrant flowers. What a splendid spectacle it is!
Now let's come to the scenic spots located on the middle axis line of West Garden Temple. From south to north along the line are Arches (Paifang) of three rooms, Mountain Gate, Jingang (diamond) Temple, Fangsheng Pond, Daxiong (grand) Palace, and Sutra Collection Pavilion. When you come out of the Jingang Temple, you can find Arhat Temple on your left and Kwan-yin Temple on your right.
The Arhat Temple was constructed at the end of Ming Dynasty where there are five hundred arhats of different names, different facial expressions, and who maintain the characteristics of a round face and plump body. They are all seated with clothes of good texture. These five hundred arhats were carved and painted with special care by the skillful craftsman in the southern area of China. Viewing the whole you will find they are of different ages from old to young, and of different personalities from lionhearted to kindhearted. But these characteristic arhats all have one thing in common: they are regarded as the symbol of power and luck by everyone in all walks of life containing the deep connotation of Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Culture. The whole architecture represents the consummate craft of sculpture from the southern area of China, which belonged to the first-rate sculpture of Arhat in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is architecture unique to the West Garden Temple.
In the center of the Arhat Temple there is a sculpture of Kwan-yin 13 meters (about 43 feet) high carved by fragrant camphor timber, which has thousands of eyes and hands. The main focus in the temple must be a peculiar figure of Buddha beside the Kwan-yin who has four faces said to represent the four famous mountains of Buddhism: Mt. Jiuhuashan in Anhui, Mt. Emeishan in Sichuan, Mt. Putuoshan in Zhejiang and Mt. Wutaishan in Shanxi. In addition, inside the Arhat Temple there are two well-known sculptures called 'Mad Monk' and 'Jigong Monk' whose words and deeds are also praised by people though they are not the traditional arhats and hence got the name of the 'Live Arhats'. The Arhat Temple with five hundred arhats is the only one in southeastern littoral area.
Here are some pictures of that lovely temple:

It was a very nice day. The weather actually was not too bad…at least it was a bit cooler than it had been…and it only rained a couple of times for a few minutes each time.
Here is a picture of my Finnish friends that I have met while living here in China…they are a great bunch of gals!! Left to right..is Susanna, Sari, Raiha, and Sari. Sari even decided to be funny and give Susanna “Rabbit Ears”

So, I must get back to school work. This class is a bear with an instructor who demands perfection and grading has been pretty harsh! A couple of people have already dropped the class and there is rumblings of more casualties to leave. I refuse to be a quitter and I will NOT let him intimidate or scare me….I picked up and moved to China …not a whole lot scares me any longer!!

Credit must be given to http://www.travelchinaguide.com for the great descriptions of the gardens. They do a much better job on the history than I ever could!