Taihu Rockery

Grotesque rockeries are often seen in Chinese parks and gardens. They range from a little over a meter to 5 or 6 meters in height. Some stand on the roadside, others are planted in the middle of ponds. They are as a rule grown with exotic flowers and rare plants, making scenic attractions. More often than not they are made from 'Taihu rocks' produced at Lake Taihu in Jiangsu Province.

They said lake area is rich in carbonate limestone rocks and enjoys abundant rainfalls. Constant weathering and rainwater erosion over the ages bore through the rocks, turning them into exquisite nature-wrought pieces of art, characterized by special features of their own. They are slender and elegant in shape, marked with clear veins, riddled with holes, rich in curves and lines on the surface, and porous in substance so that water may be passed up or down for an even distribution of moisture. For these reasons, they are popular with Chinese painters and landscape architects.

Taihu rocks are not works of nature alone. Since the Song Dynasty (960-1279) masons on the shores of Lake Taihu have been engaged in the quarrying of rocks on the mountains. On the basis of their natural forms and sizes and according to the requirements of landscape gardening, they chisel the rocks and improve on their shapes and then place them in the lake to be washed and sculpted by the moving water. Left thus they become well-polished and smooth in a few years' time. A good example for rockeries made of such rocks can be seen in the Yuyuan Garden of Shanghai under the appropriate Chinese name of 'Yulinglong' (literally, 'Jade Exquisiteness').

Rocks have been used to make artificial miniature hills in pleasure gardens. Well-known among these one can list the rock hill named Duixiu ('Heaped Elegance') in the Imperial Garden of Beijing's Forbidden City and another hill in Suzhou, named Shizilin ('Forest of Lions' or 'Lion Grove') because it is made up of rocks that resemble as many lions in myriad postures. An artificial hill in the Summer Palace, lying to the east of Xijialou Pavilion, is also built of Taihu rocks and in imitation of Suzhou's Forest of Lions just mentioned.

In the old days, to glue the rocks together into rockeries or hills, a cementing material made of lime and glutinous rice gruel was used. Today the work is made easier by the use of cement. Large rockeries and artificial rock hills often contain manmade caves which wind through them left and right, up and down, now lighted through openings, now completely dark, forming labyrinths to provide sightseers with delightful surprises. The hills are normally grown with trees and plants on their slopes and crowned with pavilions on top where visitors may linger to take in the panorama. Such arrangements often engender an illusion of space bigger than the reality, while partitioning a compound into secluded sections, tranquil from the noise of the outside world.

Book a Beijing tour package to see the Taihu Rockeries
Book a Suzhou tour package to see the Taihu Rockeries