March Visit to the Master of the Nets Garden, the Huanxiu Villa, and the Chang Garden

[Master of the Nets Garden] Located in a small alley, the Master of the Nets Garden features a rockery on the south side and a lake on the north side. The entrance is full of spring, but at this time, the trees are still bare. If you wait until the most beautiful April day, the green trees will be even more beautiful. Walking through it, you can deeply feel the aesthetics of the courtyards and gardens where the ancients lived. A home is a combination of house and garden, and living in it allows you to deeply appreciate the careful arrangement of halls, studies, pavilions, and terraces, each room with different living functions. The calligraphy, couplets, furniture, and furnishings between them are even more ingenious. The Master of the Nets Garden has the largest waterside pavilion in Suzhou gardens, the Yangguang Pavilion, named after "nourishing nature, prolonging life, and being as bright as nature." Figures 1-8. [Huanxiu Villa] Enter the Huanxiu Villa History Museum from the south gate. It is recommended to take a closer look and understand its historical evolution and cultural history. After passing through the Yougu Hall and the main hall of Huanxiu Villa, you will see the classic rockery landscape. Along the west side, there are pavilions, buildings, corridors, and a boat, with five changes along the way, which is amazing. Figures 9-13. [Chang Garden] This is a commercial garden hotel that requires advance reservation for free visits. Show the successful reservation screenshot to enter the garden. This place is very elegant, and the requirements for the staff are also very high. You can enjoy cocktails and admire ancient paintings and albums in the entrance hut. The small courtyard is rectangular from north to south, surrounded by various pavilions and different buildings. Cocktails, coffee houses, and tea rooms are all available. It is recommended to stay here for a day when there are fewer people, enjoy the quiet and petty bourgeois life in the small courtyard, and feel like the owner of the garden. Figures 14-20. ⛺[Special Note]: The entire Suzhou Garden Management Office's work is extremely meticulous. The garden's cleaning staff constantly cleans. In Huanxiu Villa, I even saw the cleaning staff wiping the dust off the outdoor rockery with a feather duster, which was deeply shocking. In order to protect the cultural heritage left by our ancestors, we should not step on the rocks with our feet at will. We should have a sense of awe for culture and visit in a civilized manner. 🛬[Itinerary]: These three gardens are very close, and you can visit them all in one morning. I started from Sunshine City, took bus No. 923 for half an hour to Yangyuxiang Station, and walked to Chang Garden. The Yangyuxiang Station is also a wooden and stone structure with garden characteristics, which I admire about Suzhou.