The First Garden to Go Abroad

Master-of-Nets Garden is one of the garden elites in Suzhou, it was originally the site of Hall of Book Volumes, also called Fisherman’s Hermitage, owned by a high official of South Song Dynasty. In Qing Dynasty, Song Zong-yuan, an official of Imperial Banquet Department, built his garden here and named it Master-of-Nets, that is, a fisherman, to express his intention for retreat and retirement.The garden is the tiniest of Suzhou gardens, yet the compact arrangement and infinite elegance entitle it as the ultimate of little gardens in Suzhou, a model of “the less exceeding the more”.
Spring Escorting Cottage of Master-of-Nets Garden, also known as Peony Cottage, as it was once a famous peony garden. Peony in China blooms the last in spring ,and the name of the cottage comes from the line by poet Su Dong-po, “And behind are stil the peonies to escort the spring”. Smallest as it is, this courtyard has the richest attractions. In 1978, officials of Metropolitan Art Museum of New York, USA, decided to have a Suzhou garden in their city, and after careful study they chose this garden as the model for their Ming Hall, and Suzhou gardens then advances overseas with the representative Ming Hall which is a copy of this pretty Spring Escorting Cottage.