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Yu Garden

History
Pan Yunduan began the project after failing one of the imperial exams. He named the garden Yu Yuan, yu(豫) meaning 'pleasing and satisfying to one's parents'. His motivation to build this garden is to show filial piety to his parents and make them enjoy in their old age. Thus, Yu Garden is also known as "Garden of peace and comfort". However, his appointment as governor of Sichuan postponed construction for nearly twenty years until 1577.

In its original form, Yu Garden has many manufactured waterways, paths, rockeries, plants and buildings. The grounds were designed to be a complex of different gardens within one centre, Leshou Tang. From Pan's own records, the garden served as hub for many social activities when he lived here, and those events influenced the texture of Shanghai society. In particular, of Pan Yuduan's journal entries from 1586 through 1601, nearly three quarters of them are related to various public performances that were held in the garden, with the Leshou Tang being the main venue for these events. The garden was the largest and most prestigious of its era in Shanghai, but eventually its expense helped ruin the Pans.

Design
Today, Yu Garden occupies an area of 2 hectares (5 acres). The approach to the garden is across a Nine-turn bridge crossing a small pond with a teahouse. The entrance is off the forecourt at the end of the bridge. Yu Garden reflects the garden style of Jiangnan garden architecture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It perfectly blends decorative halls, elaborate pavilions, glittering ponds, zigzag bridge s, archways, and exquisite rockeries.

Yu Garden is divided into six general areas laid out in the Suzhou style:


 * Wanhua Chamber (, Wàn Huā Lóu, lit. "Chamber of the Ten Thousand Flowers") - includes Wanhua Chamber, Yule Pavilion, Double Lane Corridor and Gingko Tree of 400 years old staking out the front courtyard.
 * Huijing Hall (, Huì Jǐng Lóu) - includes Jade Water Corridor, Three-Turn Bridge, Nine Lion Study.

Surroundings and remark
The garden is surrounded by markets, city god temple, and Yuyuan Bazaar. Yuyuan Bazaar is located right next to Yu Garden, with beautiful Chinese architecture and design coupled with hundreds of shops selling pieces of jewelry, silk, antiques, arts, crafts, souvenirs, and local snacks. Through out the years, Yu Garden has maintained a delicate balance between scholarly elegance and gaudy consumerism from its earliest days, and it has served as the stage on which the drama of the Pan family and the drama of the people of Shanghai have been performed.