17 Dec 2017 - Shanghai Day 3: The Lion Grove Garden (狮子林)

We arrived at The Lion Grove Garden (狮子林) at about 3:30pm.

Lion Grove Garden was built in 1342 during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) by a group of Zen Buddhist disciples of Monk Tianru as a memorial of their master - Monk Zhongfeng.

The garden is famous for the large and labyrinthine grotto of taihu rocks at its center. The name of the garden is derived from the shape of these rocks, which are said to resemble lions. The garden is recognized with other classical gardens in Suzhou as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The 1.1 ha garden is divided into two main parts, a housing complex and rockery around a central pond.  In addition to the 22 buildings the garden also houses 25 tablets, 71 steles, 5 carved wooden screens, and 13 ancient specimen trees, some dating back to the Yuan Dynasty.

The garden is most famous for its elaborate grotto of taihu rocks. This 1154 m2 grotto contains a maze of 9 paths winding through 21 caves across 3 levels.  There is a folktale about two immortals, Iron-Crutch Li (铁拐李) and Lü Dongbin (吕洞宾), who wandered into the maze of the Lion Grove and lost their way, after which they settled in a cave to play chess.

Jerlene and Javier enjoyed this garden more than the others because it's very challenging and fun to navigate through the rockery.  At one point, we were so close to each other but mommy got lost in the maze while trying to reach us.  Haha......

We stayed in the garden till its closure time at 5pm.

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