A Summer Tour to Qu Shui Garden

Shanghai Qu Shui Garden was first built in the tenth year of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (AD 1745). It is said that in order to build this garden, one penny was collected from every resident in the city, hence it is also known as 'One Penny Garden'. In the forty-ninth year of Qianlong (AD 1784), the land was expanded, dikes were built, stones were piled up, pavilions were added, and after more than forty years, twenty-four scenes and more than thirty temples were built in the garden. Every stone, water, pavilion, and tower in the garden is interesting. In the third year of Jiaqing (AD 1798), the garden was renamed Qu Shui Garden. Because the garden is next to Dayingpu, it takes the meaning of 'curved water flowing muscles' from Wang Xizhi's 'Preface to the Orchid Pavilion'. It was destroyed by artillery fire during the Xianfeng period. During the Guangxu period, it took 20 years to repair the temples and gardens, and a life-saving pool and Flower God Hall were added. In 1927, a rockery was added, and a nine-peak viewing pavilion was built on the mountain, where you can climb to overlook the nine peaks of Song County.