As my last stop in China in January 2020, I visited the Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou. The people of Suzhou must have a sarcastic streak: Whoever created the garden was anything but humble. I guess "humble" was code for "hugely corrupt".

The garden is a large Chinese garden with water being the defining landscaping feature. What I enjoyed most were all the small detours and hideouts the garden offers. On an area of 5.2ha it manages to squeeze in so many viewpoints that I regularly thought I was in a new location. But then it turned out I had been there before, just on a different side with a different perspective. In total, I must have circled the garden twice to take everything in.

A pleasant surprise were the many Bonsais on display. We nowadays think of Bonsais as a Japanese art form when they actually originated in China. The same also holds true for landscape gardening in general.

Visiting in winter had the downside that many trees were not carrying leafs and the garden wasn't as green as it would have been a few months later. On the other hand, I did not need a reservation and the crowds were way less. Still, they were too many for my liking. The garden was not intended for the public, but for the rich owner to relax and appreciate the intimacy.

As had been the case for a few days now, it was raining heavily (again). Having lost my wallet the previous day in Huangshan and my cash reserves dwindling fast, I opted to skip on further gardens and return to Shanghai. I would have loved to see more, as the Humble Administrator's Garden belongs with the best gardens the world has to offer.

Getting There and In

There are frequent trains from Shanghai and Hangzhou. The gardens in Suzhou center can be done on foot. The rest I did not investigate, but knowing China you should find a bus connection. The most popular gardens nowadays have online reservations. This can be done e.g. in trip.com. I arrived in off season and managed to get in without a reservation (or a queue for that matter).