Why is Plum Garden special
Plum Garden, known as Meiyuan, is located five kilometers west of the city of Wuxi. It has long been noted as one of the best places for viewing plum blossoms. Backs onto Dragon Mountain and faces Taihu Lake, Plum Garden combines mountains, water and plum blossoms together, creating picturesque scenery that fully represents the profound culture of Chinese plum blossom.
As early as 1912, Rong Desheng, one of the first national businessmen, invested in the garden and began its construction. Various plum trees were planted on the original plot, and later it was expanded to the current scale. Plums are of various kinds introducing from all over the country. It integrates natural beauty, history and architecture in a harmonious way.
Plum Garden Highlights
Three sections featuring distinct themes are distributed in the garden. The part that focuses on the plum blossom has a romantic and poetic atmosphere. There are more than 4,000 planted plum trees and 2,000 plum bonsais including about 40 hybrids such as Cinnabar plum and Kermes plum. Enjoying a 70-year-history of planting, the garden offers a great many examples of members of the plum family including Straight Branch, Reclinate Branch, Dragon Swim, hybrids of plum and apricot, and cherry plum. As you wander around this ocean of fragrance, famous poems and painting will help you appreciate the wonders of plum blossoms more than ever.
The shapes of the trees and the poses of the plum blossoms will surely be impressive. However, the garden is more than just scenery. Dotted with terraces, pagodas and rare stones, the garden provides you with many favorable spots for appreciating the view. The grassland, forests and flowers have many distinct foreign styles. Wandering about the garden, a feeling of roaming in a mysterious land where windmills and hanging bridges are interspersed with coffee bars will come to you.
Another spot worth mentioning is the Huaxi District, meaning a place with flowers and streams. There are more than 100 varieties of rare flowers and grasses growing under the trees, either along the river banks or amongst the huge rocks.
The garden now has many other trees planted among the plum trees such as peach, orange, and maidenhair as well as many other plants such as lotus. The poetic and romantic view of the Three Friends of winter-pine trees, bamboo and plum trees, together with the floating snow, which highlight the garden every winter, can never be missed.