Daily Improvisations

  • Inside the Homestead
    • Sewing
    • crochet and knit
    • Playing House
    • In the Workshop
    • Cooking and Food
    • Helpless Female
  • Out in the Garden
    • In My Greenhouse
    • Gardening in Southwest Idaho
    • Straw Bale Garden Project
  • Out with Animals
    • Chickens
    • Goats
    • Horses
  • Around the Globe
    • Adventures with Wild Greg
    • Chocolate Shops Around the World
    • Life in Taipei
    • About Town
      • My Blogs
  • The DI Store
    • DI Gardener’s Shop
    • How to Build a Backyard Brick Oven From Scratch (Book)
    • Custom designs
  • DI Memberships
    • Log In
    • Sign up to be a DI Sewing Room Insider
    • Dream House Members Area
      • Dream House Eyewitness Login
      • Your Account
      • Dream House Project
    • Become a Dream House Eyewitness!

The Rocks of Contentment

April 12, 2011 by Laura Blodgett 7 Comments

Yu Yuan (豫園) is purportedly a garden designed to induce contentment for royalty. The unifying theme is rock. It is found throughout the garden in both (seemingly) natural formations and in intricate patterns. Plants and flowers are occasional focal points, but obviously not of primary concern.

To find the garden, one must navigate a sprawling marketplace which is filling every nook and cranny of the grand houses and courtyards of the once dynasty. Walking is the only mode of transportation in grounds, and there were large crowds there on the Monday afternoon that I ventured there. Many of the visitors and shoppers were Chinese. There was a small representation of foreigners, but all speaking languages I couldn’t identify.

As usual in Shanghai, there were official guards at the entrance, which was obscurely marked compared to the flamboyance of the merchants. There were no maps where I went in. There was also no particular flow of traffic. Fortunately, it wasn’t crowded inside the walled garden.

The architect was oddly creative with his use of doors. I tried to take a picture of each different one I saw. Signs claimed there was significance for every element of building design, which were as ornate as you would expect for this period of history. The open spaces were just big enough to give a sense of destination before the pathways beckoned in other directions, often giving more than one choice.

I finally found a large sign of a map near the end of my walk therein, but even looking at it gave me a limited idea of where I have been in the garden. I will try to give you a semblance of a tour with my photos.

20110412-012300.jpg

20110412-015710.jpg

20110412-020113.jpg

20110412-020146.jpg

20110412-031353.jpg

20110412-031408.jpg

20110412-031421.jpg

20110412-031438.jpg

20110412-031446.jpg

20110412-031455.jpg

20110412-031501.jpg

20110412-031514.jpg

20110412-031529.jpg

20110412-031536.jpg

20110412-031543.jpg

20110412-031551.jpg

20110412-031604.jpg

20110412-031622.jpg

20110412-031631.jpg

20110412-031638.jpg

20110412-031645.jpg

20110412-031653.jpg

20110412-031659.jpg

20110412-031724.jpg

20110412-031731.jpg

20110412-031738.jpg

20110412-031747.jpg

20110412-031758.jpg

20110412-031825.jpg

20110412-031842.jpg

20110412-031859.jpg

20110412-031921.jpg

20110412-031929.jpg

20110412-031939.jpg

20110412-031947.jpg

20110412-031956.jpg

20110412-032021.jpg

20110412-032033.jpg

20110412-032043.jpg

20110412-032054.jpg

20110412-032118.jpg

20110412-032127.jpg

20110412-032140.jpg

20110412-032149.jpg

20110412-032205.jpg

20110412-032215.jpg

20110412-032239.jpg

20110412-032250.jpg

20110412-032303.jpg

20110412-032316.jpg

20110412-032329.jpg

20110412-032344.jpg

20110412-032358.jpg

Now you should feel very peaceful.

Filed Under: Around the Globe Tagged With: Gardens Around the Globe

Comments

  1. Emtiff says

    April 12, 2011 at 5:35 am

    What beautiful pictures!

    Reply
  2. natalie says

    April 12, 2011 at 8:51 am

    Are the buildings in the first few pictures part of the garden area? I already have favorite sections, such as the narrow mossy path with “natural” rocks on either side in one of the photos. (I would have felt a more peaceful at the end if we didn’t have lively music playing for the morning’s chores 😀 Instead, I just inspected the art in an energetic state of mind.)

    Reply
  3. ronibird says

    April 12, 2011 at 9:31 am

    Those doorways look like fun! Was it a passageway garden? Some of the spaces look narrower than I would have expected from a garden garden.

    Reply
  4. Heidi says

    April 12, 2011 at 9:35 am

    I’ve never seen a garden like that, from the pictures it almost looks like a set of hallways bounded by walls, rocks, or water, that connect in a maze. It looks like it would be nice to visit sometime. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Rachael says

    April 12, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    Lovely pictures! I don’t necessarily feel more peaceful, but I do feel impressed. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  6. Laura says

    April 12, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    Yes, Beth, I think you could call it a passageway garden.

    Reply
  7. Laura says

    April 12, 2011 at 3:20 pm

    Heidi, much of it was like a maze, which is why I was not inclined to go into the part on the map marked specifically to be a maze! I was “mazed” enough. 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Don’t fight the weather and environment. Discover how to wield their moods and energy to your own advantage. — Learn to plant the right seeds at the right time. — Your neighbors will be in awe and your taste buds will be delighted!

About me

 

 

Daily Improvisations is a project by Laura Blodgett

If you want to know more about what I’m up to and where to read about it, here is a summary!

Making sure you know that:

Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, including affiliate links to amazon.com. See disclosures here.

Contact Me

Contact Me
First

All pictures and content including the name and logo “Daily Improvisations” are Copyright (c)  by Laura Blodgett, unless otherwise noted.

Tags

animals Backyard Oven backyard weeds book reviews Chef Betharoni chickens Cori Lou Costa Rica crochet and knit decorating even I can do dehydrating fabric stores around the world flowers flowers from seed Gardens Around the Globe helpless female homestead injuries insects interview Maui music organizing poems PVC Pipe Projects questioning the establishment recipes restaurant reviews sew sewing sourdough southwest Idaho gardening sprinklers stock market diaries Taipei Taiwan technology know-how The Best Little Chocolate Shops tools and equipment underground house unimpeded parenting Wild Greg Adventure

Copyright © 2025 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in