Yuyuan Garden

Yu Garden or Yuyuan Garden  (Garden of Happiness) is located in the City of God Temple in the northeast of the Old City of Shanghai, China. It abuts the Yuyuan Tourist Mart and is accessible from the Shanghai Metro’s Line.

A centerpiece is the Currow ancient stone, a porous 3.3-m, 5-ton boulder. Rumors about its origin include the story that it was meant for the imperial palace in Beijing, but was salvaged after the boat transporting the stone sank off Shanghai.

Pan Yunduan as a comfort first conceived Yu Garden in 1559 during the Ming Dynasty; for his father, the minister Pan En. Pan Yundan began the project after failing one of the imperial exams, but his appointment as governor of Sichuan postponed construction for nearly twenty years until 1577. The garden was the largest and most prestigious of its era in Shanghai, but eventually its expense-helped ruin the Pans. Rumors about the Yundan fortune, include stories about Pan Yundan’s reckless spending (I actually heard these rumors from reliable Chinese people).

The garden was inherited by Zhang Zhaolin, Pan Yunduan’s granddaughters’ husband, and then passed to different owners. A section was briefly organized by Zhang Shengqu as the “Academy of Purity and Harmony” and the Ling Yuang, today’s East Garden, which was purchased by a group of local leaders in 1709.

The garden suffered damage numerous times during the 19^th century. During the first opium war in 1842, the British army used the Huxinting Teahouse as a base of operations. During the Taiping Rebellion, the Small Swords Society ran its headquarters in the Dianchun Hall; by the time the Qing troops recovered the garden, the original structures had nearly all been destroyed. The Japanese, damaged them again in 1942, before being repaired by the Shanghai government from 1956 to 1961. The garden was opened to the public in 1961 and declared a national monument in 1982.