Located in the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute on the western section of Jingde Road in the center of the ancient city of Suzhou, the Huanxiu Mountain Villa is a famed classical garden dating back to the Qing Dynasty.

The mountain villa covers an area of 0.2 hectare, with houses built in front of a garden. Rockeries and the pond in which they are displayed form the centerpiece of the entire garden. To the west of the pond there are the side chamber and a corridor. The rockwork was created in 1807 by Ge Yuliang, an expert of artificial mountains. It is the most outstanding agglomeration of rocks among all the gardens in Suzhou.

The rockwork covers 0.03 hectare of land and rises six meters above the ground and seven meters above the water surface. Though small, the rocky hill has a maze of paths, caves, running streams, stone chambers, secluded ravines, and surging peaks. Perfectly blending with the scenes in the entire garden, it imparts a wonderland to evoke memory of a masterpiece of traditional Chinese landscape painting.

(China.org.cn June 24, 2004)